Natural Gas in Water Wells -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here (regional links break early).

In the early 1900s, settlers in North Dakota tapped into shallow gases to light and heat their homes. Now geologists are conducting studies to see if these gases could be used as a resource.

“Historically, what has happened when people have developed in rural areas they found shallow gases in their water wells and used them as a resource to power lights,” North Dakota Geologist Fred Anderson said.

Anderson, who works for the Department of Mineral Resources in Bismarck, said this occurred in the 1800s in the southeastern part of the state, and there have been reports of shallow gases across the state since.

The North Dakota Geological Survey has screened 905 shallow gas occurrences in 52 out of 53 counties in North Dakota, according to a January newsletter put out by Anderson.

For more on this story, go to this post. I first posted this back in January, 2011.

Fortunately for the litigious-affected, hydrocarbons can be fingerprinted.