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Dept Of Environmental Protection To Investigate EOG Resources Marcellus Shale Explosion Thoroughly
From PR Newswire:
DEP Plans Thorough Investigation in to Marcellus Shale Well Blowout in Clearfield County
EOG Resources Well Released Fracking Fluid, Natural Gas for 16 Hours
HARRISBURG, Pa., June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said today that his agency intends to investigate aggressively the circumstances surrounding a blowout at a Marcellus Shale natural gas well in Lawrence Township, Clearfield County, and take the appropriate enforcement action.
At approximately 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 3, the operators of the well, which is owned by EOG Resources , Inc., lost control of it while preparing to extract gas after hydrofracturing the shale. As a result, the well released natural gas and flowback frack fluid onto the ground and 75 feet into the air. The well was eventually capped around noon on June 4.
"The event at the well site could have been a catastrophic incident that endangered life and property," said Hanger. "This was not a minor accident, but a serious incident that will be fully investigated by this agency with the appropriate and necessary actions taken quickly.
"When we arrived on scene, natural gas and frack fluid was flowing off the well pad and heading toward tributaries to Little Laurel Run and gas was shooting into the sky, creating a significant fire hazard. That's why emergency responders acted quickly to cut off electric service to the area.
"Right now, we're focused on limiting any further environmental damage, but once that work is complete, we plan to aggressively look at this situation and see where things went wrong and what enforcement action is necessary. If mistakes were made, we will be certain to take steps to prevent similar errors from happening again."
DEP learned of the leak at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Friday after it was informed by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. DEP immediately dispatched its Emergency Response and Oil and Gas program staff to the site.
PEMA, which elevated its activation level to coordinate resources among multiple state agencies, also worked with PennDOT to initiate an airspace restriction above the well, which the Federal Aviation Administration authorized on a temporary basis earlier today. The restriction prohibits flights at and below 1,000 feet of ground level within a three nautical mile radius of the well site. The restriction is in effect until further notice.
The EOG well pad is located in a rural area near the Penfield/Route 153 exit of Interstate 80 in northwestern Clearfield County. Three other wells on the same pad that have been drilled and fractured remain plugged and are not in danger.
EOG Resources, formerly known as Enron Oil & Gas Co., operates approximately 265 active wells in Pennsylvania, 117 of which are in the Marcellus Shale formation.
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since when is ZH a gas and oil industry blog. putting crap like this up proves right all the people who consider this blog just another venue for panic and armageddon discussion.
please, NO israel, NO BP, NO OIL and gas news NO north korea.
This is not a blog about a specific industry. This blog is about making CASH off of the eediots who run Wall Street and the world governments. Therefore, short away.. or end up being as bitter as the JORY guy who keeps acting like he got "touched" by gold bugs one time too many in his youth..
I'm glad Team Tyler put this story up. I too have a serious gas problem today and seek commiserative comfort.
So according to you:
1) finance, geopolitics and commodities are not related;
2) a story about an imminent impact in the stock price of CHK, EOG and other shale companies is irrelevant; and
3) discussing reality (or panic and Armageddon as you put it) in the context of finance is ok, but anything else you are not comfortable with is taboo?
Did i get this right?
If so, you may find yahoo finance messageboards better suited to your interests
...and zevulon is never to be heard from again! Well done. What we don't need is another troll.
2 weeks / 2 days was enough it seems.
http://www.zerohedge.com/users/zevulon/track
Looks like we'll be missing Zevulon classics like...
He'll be sadly missed! :)
BRAVO!!!
Cheap energy had nothing to do with anything in the United States.I was contemplating this as I cruised on the local Interstate Highway.Energy getting very expensive is a non event in the US Tyler.If gasoline and diesel get to 10 dollars a gallon what could possibly go wrong?
Oh, we are so doomed.Moving everything by truck/highway may have been shortsighted.Suburbs built on prime farmland may have been a mistake.
The US was and is built on cheap hydrocarbon fuel...almost nothing else is as important.Minor things like food production depend on it.
Thanks for the critically important article Tyler.When people cannot afford food maybe they will understand just how critical it is.
@zevulon
Don't like the content? Move the phuck on. So, to summarize, STFU or GTFO.
+1000
Brief yet effective Cursive... I like your style.
(Seems to be a lot of posters lately who wish to impose a form of censorship here.)
As we get closer to the bone, some people don't react well. So much of what's going on in today's world is the struggle to keep the lid on the lie. And not just the lie of the Ponzi, but all those little lies we live with and within on a daily basis.
It's no longer about making new lies, it's about supporting old lies. It's a losing battle. They just haven't accepted that fact yet.
wow, that's good soap man.
(and the brevity makes it mo' better imho.)
"they're going to get you, they won't forget you"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x3TMBeX-ws
Hmm, I'd like to go long STFU, but neither of those are valid Nasdaq ticker symbols.
zevulon, don't you have to get cleaned up so you can make that 7:00PM party in the Hamptons?
Zevulon, go Frack your mother...
She stopped returning his calls after he complained that she ruined his life by giving birth to him.
Fracking Battlestar fan?
Frackin' A !
"On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."- kinda screams panic and armageddon
1 This accident will probably result in regulation which will result in a change of how energy companies do business .
2 There is nothing in the motto of this site that suggests it is purely financial .
3 This site blows away any other financial/news site/blog so just say thanks to Tyler and team for the great job they do .
4 all of your above topics have a fundamental relation to the markets if you can't see that you shouldn't be reading anything here .
Edit : Tyler you type fn fast man - I wouldnt have wasted my time
excellent suggestion. because none of those issues have any impact on the financial/economic world.
here is another, go start your own blog. then you can decide what content to produce. you can call it ZeroReaders.com
LOL
ZeroSmarts.com
Lizzy36 took an axe,
And gave our Zevulon forty whacks,
And when she saw what she had done,
She changed her name to Lizzy37.
(Wash, rinse, repeat! :)
LOL
Check another one off the list as solved. I always wondered where Lizzy came up with 36. Now I know.
Funny - I should've been investigated for my natural gas output. The amount of times my toilet clogged should've been a clue to the Feds.
Meanwhile, Zevulon - I'm sure the Feds will investigate you regarding your hot-air output.
The BP executives are probably popping the champagne on this news.
"See, it happens to everybody."
"It wasn't our fault."
"Drilling 25,000 ft. without a permit really didn't matter."
"Ignore the mud engineer's report of rubber gaskets in the mud really didn't matter."
"Using seawater instead of mud really didn't matter."
I wonder who our community organizer is going to blame for this....
Bush
"The EOG well pad is located in a rural area near the Penfield/Route 153 exit of Interstate 80 in northwestern Clearfield County."
Damn, that's close to my still. I better high tail it over there and see if those bastards didn't use the blowout as an excuse to......er......sample my stuff.
LOL...
Better start bringing water in for your still operations.
Shale extraction operations pollute the ground water pretty severly.
"Shale extraction operations pollute the ground water pretty severely."
Already has. But it just adds a little "zing" to mama's secret recipe. Hell, I could piss in it and my customers wouldn't care less. They're all 3 sheets to the wind and as long as they show up with legal tender or a few chickens, I give what ever's coming out the back end of the still. :>)
Well, besides a tinfoil hat(just in case), we ZHers all have RO filters on our water supplies.
RO filters bitchez!
http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/
Great. Now your whisky will taste like Gewürztraminer...
LOL
Man, you don't need to be insulting. :>)
If they nuke the well you'll have shine that glows in the dark! Invite me over.
LOL
What a great comment. It works on so many levels.
When I'm shit faced in the middle of the night, my glow-in-the-dark shine will show me the way to salvation.
An event that has not reached critical, so a non-event in the end...
WH & MSM diversion tactics from GoM? Maybe I've become too cinical.
Just goes to show you what retarded environmental laws do. Exactly why is BP drilling in risky environments like thousands of feet deep water? Because the envriotard movement won't allow drilling in places where oil and gas is more accessible; namely, land. EOG could cap a well within hours and limit damage when inevitable accidents occur. BP drilling where the envirotards allow them to is months in to the worst environmental crisis in our history. In the words of South Park, Team America: "We'll look around at the world the liberals have given us and say 'Thanks F.A.G.S.'"
On top of that it, it's like oh noeees! some natural gas was shooting into the air for a little while somwhere!! Great stuff. The worlds swamps and termite beds and ruminant bellies were outrunning the uncontrolled well by many many orders of magnitude, but let's do confuse everyone by an nationally unnewsworthy hyperlocal event.
If you think there are useful quantities of oil to be found by drilling on land within the 50 states, please post details including:
geographic location
depth of oil reservoir
composition, permeability, and type of rock in the reservoir
reasonably estimated total resource, producible reserves, and rate of production
My point too. I constantly hear people bitching about environmentalists stopping oil drilling here in the US. Where? Alaska's North Slope? Ok, but it's still a tough drilling environment. Have anywhere else that you can show us? Hell, I drove through Rio Blanco County, Colorado this past Fall and there are oil wells everywhere. Can you show more examples since Reagan's administration where big business has lost out on major profits due to environmentalist? I just don't see it...it sure seems that business has always won when real money comes into play.
I spent several years as the director of a sustainable development organization and know a little bit about environmentalists. I know, I know, you guys who listen to business media know ALL about those enviro-hippies retards, etc... Let me give you an example of the toughest environmentalist you'll ever run into: She's a former lawyer who is now a stay at home mom with 2 or 3 kids. Her husband makes 6-figures at some business and they live in a really nice neighborhood. Then some entrepreneurial type of guy wants to develop the vacant land behind HER house, the land her kids play on. Then the shit hits the fan because she knows how to work the system.
I have lobbied in a state capitol and Washington, DC many times in the past for sustainable developoment issues. Is there anyone on the ZH board who really, truly believes politicians listen to enviro-hippies over Corporate Suits, especially since the 80's? I mean honestly? Do you?
If so, perhaps you should go to a board more suited to naive folks or the right-wing nut-job blogs where the strawman liberals they build daily, and only liberals, are to blame FOR EVERYTHING. Or look a little more closely at reality. Or don't. I understand some folks just can't handle any facts seeping into their worldview. Hence the need for wing-nut radio to maintain the hypnotic trance with the same thing, day in, day out, 24/7/365.
Let's see for starters Shell offered the State of CA $1 billion for permission to just shoot 3D seismic off-shore (shallow-water) and CA said "No." 3D sesimic has zero enviromental impact (it's just a boat towing streamers) but CA doesn't even want to know what type of oil reserves might be accessible off their shores because if there are reserves (that are easily accessible) there would be pressure to permit drilling.
These stories are a dime a dozen. If you really can't find any evidence of states and environmental lobbies making oil exploration difficult it's because your an ass. The reason BP and others are drilling in harsh deep water conditions is not because that's where the most accessible oil is, it is because that's the only place they are allowed to drill. Appparently you haven't been following any of the discussion of leasing Federal lands (not happening because of envirotards) or moratoriums on shallow-water permitting that are in place.
If there was no oil to be found in these places why not lease the tracts and permit the E&P companies shoot seismic and come up empty... debate over. Instead, they don't permit it because just like the state of CA they don't want to know how much oil might be easily accessible. Why else would regulators and the envirotards be against even shooting seismic to see what resources might be underground. Again, it is no environmental impact to find out... but for some reason they say "no."
The question of "where is all this oil?" can only be answered by leasing tracts to E&P companies and letting them find it. What a classic envirotard way of thinking though Madmax... don't permit any discovery and then say "where's all this oil you're talking about?" Perhaps having a clue about the E&P process and where the horse and cart go is in order before chiming in with junk opinions.
No, I don't have time in my life to look at every nuance of the dastardly liberal assault on all of us these days. /sarcasm. However, I've seen these things before in many ways, both at the state and federal level and I know one thing about legislation: money and power wins. Everytime. End of story. In today's California, that is completely broke, they still will vote against a revenue stream from oil drilling? Boy, it's amazing how much money those enivrohippies have these days to just shut down all drilling in California and across the US. Maybe other interests beyond just envirohippies had concerns.
Did you attend any of the committee hearings in CA? Read any of the notes? Look at who presented information to the committee for and against the proposal?
Did you ever consider that sometimes it's hunters who want to maintain target species at some land sites? Those guys are usually envirotard hippies, right? Or maybe it's wealthy, powerful, well-connected folks with nice, beachfront houses that have gorgeous views of the coastline or other drilling sites who don't want to look at oil rigs. Those folks are always liberal, envirotard hippies (but maybe not). How about the fishing, entertainment or leisure industries that use the beachfront to earn their living and are concerned about the effect oil drilling might have on their business? Again, more envirotard hippies there I guess. Oops, I mean LIBERAL, envirotard hippies. That ensures this issue remains soley at the black and white level.
Maybe, just maybe, there's more to the story than just those damned LIBERAL envirotard hippies causing the problem.
Finally, I hear conservatives rant endlessly about state's rights and individual rights granted through the Constitution. If a state, or individuals of a state, vote against oil drilling that may benefit the nation, how could conservatives hold that against them? It's the usual conservatives want it both ways game.
+1
Some wag once offered the observation that "bodies in motion tend to stay in motion, bodies at rest tend to remain at rest." So, what does thermodynamics have to do with thumping the earth to see what's down there? Momentum. As development interest spend money on a project, the project develops momentum. What Shell was looking for wasn't just oil, it was momentum. Employ some locals or spend money locally. Shake hands with the local bankers and politicos. Do your thumping. If you find something, well then you've got a little political momentum going to help you develop your resource. Every environmental activist has seen this first hand. It works. Hence, yes, if I were opposed to offshore drilling I would not want any "environmentally benign" work done to facilitate the project - because I understand momentum.
I'm delighted to see some one's reading the oil & gas talking points handout before posting on ZH. Thanks for your help in spreading the propganda. We just couldn't do it without your support.
The truth is, BP is the institutional environmentalist movement.
They funded this shit. They lobbied the government hardcore for it. Because their primary oil fields in the North Sea have been in terminal decline for years. They did it to squeeze out competition, eke out a competitive advantage in lobbyist-created "alternative energy," and curry favor with the Democratic party.
It worked for a little while. But now they're dead. And their "movement" will return to the dance-around-the-maypole hippie parade that it began as.
The best way to understand the environmentalist movement is that donating to them is a great way for Wall Street wives to annoy their husbands. All that needs to happen to end the whole fucking movement is for dudes on Wall Street to tell each other to tell their wives to go buy more purses or something instead of donating $300k a year to the Sierra Club.
Bang bang. "Movement" dead.
ahem, that's nature conservancy to you jack:
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/05/24/nature-conservancy-and-bp/
and feel free to give the greenturds back to the hippies...at least they know how to have fun with it...
God damn enviro-terrorists! They will stop at nothing...
I'm not sure this is the result of "retarded" environmental laws. Fracking is a highly descrutive and questionable method for extraction-- the fact this is even allowed shows that environmental concerns are low on the list. But that's beside the point- Fracking and deepwater drilling is the result of peak oil/energy. All options are on the table now. The New Yorker reported last week that a significant portion of US oil will come from tar sands this year. This is terrifying...
In the 60 minutes report on the BP spill it was explained that BP insisted the drilling procedure speed up even when chucks of rubber where flowing UP the riser pipe with the drilling mud, several weeks prior to the explosion. The rig's engineers thought it was crazy to speed the process, but had to comply...Why would BP act so recklessly? Desperation I believe- demand must be met, they need whatever oil that can be extracted, right now.
To the first poster: Energy is the life blood of economic systems- one does not exist without the other. If you don't understand this now, you soon will.
"New Yorker reported last week that a significant portion of US oil will come from tar sands this year"
Now we're funding the notorious psycho state Saudi Canadia!
The next generation of american women may be forced to be garbed with maple leaf symbols. Canadian born actors and actresses and singers and comedians will pollute our childrens minds...
+100 Mad Max...
If there were significant oil reserves that were easy to reach in the 50 states that shit would be PUMPIN' right now- even if the field was in the middle of DC. As Michael Ruppert is fond of saying: "we picked all the low hanging fruit a long time ago."
Ha. Blame it on the environmentalists...as if that was even a factor.
Yeah, it's funny how some folks here in the land of plenty just refuse to acknowledge or accept that our oil production peaked in the 70's. No, no, it's much easier to blame all of those bad, evil enviro-commies that have more power in Washington that Wall Street.
I'm not sure how these folks reconcile in their mind that Wall Street runs all of these financial scams while government regulators have looked the other way for years. And, the Wall Street Boyz own congress and the president in Washington, DC. Yet those damned environmentalists are still able to keep them from drilling for oil, right here in the Good Ol' U. S of A. How, exactly do you make sense of anything with that belief system bouncing around in your head?
There was not anything particularly dangerous about flowing back the frac job to the atmosphere. Just don't light a flame near by. They blew some frac fluids on the ground, big whoop. It is almost entirely plain water. When the gas gets mixed with enough air and far enough away it is not a problem. I expect that the evacuation was to protect anyone from an explosive blast should a nut get close enough to try to light the well instead of just let it cleanup by blowing gas for a while. That could make some jihadi's day a really bright and memorable event.
It will be interesting to find out what let go in the frac plumbing.
For all you guys bashing Prechter the other day I have 2 things for you to consider:
1. Socionomics (I believe) would say that incidents like this usually occur after social mood gets so maniacal that carelessness becomes commonplace.
2. Elliott Wave considers the last 10 years a bear market rally. During this time we saw the rise of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thiefs (or something), and I just saw a preview for the Socerer's Apprentice.
2003 Theorist explained that magic will become more popular. This IS another indication of the size of the bear that is beating the door down. Mr. Prechter is a brilliant man and socionomics is brilliant.
Have a great weekend ZHers!
People, Technological Fundamentalism, is the only hope!
me and marchellus shale + water, go way back, together.
man, i showered in this stinky sulfur coagulated rotten egg, black wet shit for 30 years.
it is ubiquious throughout the west, w a t e r g a s.
Satan in a stinky form†
plus, now i remember i used the rhythm method, frank†
Shale exploration is much less profitable and much more dangerous than Gas companies want people to know. It's a semi-version of fool's gold to attract more capital. Keep it in mind or invest at your own peril.
This is not CollapseNet ™, a long-anticipated new effort from internationally-recognized author, lecturer and activist Michael C. Ruppert, will officially launch on Tuesday June 8, 2010. The site will be a first-of-its-kind effort to promote the rapid and focused sharing of information between millions around the world who are preparing for the collapse of human industrial civilization – The Lifeboat Movement.
gotta love the TM symbol...as if that will mean a fucking hill of beans if the shit hits the shinola.
Tyler, I don't know how to ask a question for you to address, so I'll hope you're reading this string. What's your take on Calpine? It went belly up a few years ago due to insufficient cash flow to service its debts (since reborn) but it is one of the largest NG-fired power producers in the nation. NG has emissions benefits but typically cost about 1.5 times coal-fired plants so if emissions get taxed, Calpine would be well positioned. They just refinanced some of their debt and had to swallow hard. Are they headed for the dumper again?