Updates
December 14, 2012: The Bismarck Tribune reports the well "blew out" 6:00 p.m last night and by 9:00 a.m. this morning, was "under control." Correctly, the Tribune now reports the location of the well, "southwest" of New Town. I am absolutely impressed with the roughnecks who control these things. Good on ya.
December 14, 2012: based on a comment received this morning, sounds like it was the Mooka well. This well is south of New Town, not east as reported in the news media. As noted below, there is a rig on site at the Mooka. I may be premature in this, but it sounds like the EPA will send some folks out in the dead of winter with clipboards to research this, publish a report about two years from now, and life will go on.
Later, 9:41 pm: check this link to see how often mishaps in the Williston Basin occur -- and then this one on "the 13th."
Later, 7:01 pm: video of blowout at KX News (Minot). East of New Town. Five miles east of New Town there is a Slawson well on confidential status:
- 22228, conf, Slawson, Vixen Federal 2-19-30H, Van Hook, east of New Town,
- 20810, conf, Slawson, Mooka 2-29-20TFH, Big Bend, south of New Town
Original Post
Again, no permit number, no well name, .... just superb in-depth reporting.
KXNet.com has a good video of the well spewing oil.
ReplyDeleteGary
It's posted. Thank you very much.
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Slawson the same company that screwed up on their frack up by Killdeer a couple years ago and actually contaminated drinking water? I believe it was by fracking the vertical component of the well, instead of the horizontal section. If it was Slawson, the rest of the oil companies need to get together and give these guys a serious "boot party." They are giving everyone else a bad name.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember/can't recall. But I have a poor memory. However, a quick Google search doesn't show anything. I think if any well mishap in North Dakota contaminated drinking water it would be fairly easy to dredge up on Google. But again, I have a short memory.
DeleteIf what you say is accurate, it will probably be reported again.
I have a page for "Oil Rig Mishaps" but the list was only started in 2011: first a CLR well, then an Oasis well, then this Slawson well.
Nope was not us but thanks for your concern. And the Mooka accident was an excellent example of how a professionally prepared organization and good teamwork can quickly solve what very occaisonally happens with these complex systems. Backups in place worked and on to other business.
DeleteHow interesting, the timing.
DeleteThank you. See my comment below in which I wrote:
"This is why I am hesitant to post comments without links to sources. Rumors are not good in the oil patch.
Huge apology to Slawson for even mentioning them in the earlier comment. Mishaps do occur and they will happen again, but this one did not involve Slawson, and I have the highest respect for Slawson and "all" the Bakken-centric operators."
Again, I have the highest respect for the Bakken-centric operators. Keep up the great work. And thank you for writing.
I think what many are losing fact of is, this is a blog. People ranting back and forth. Many times what is stated in a comment is merely a tag for conversation...... Remembering back an incident in this case, but not the specifics. It is impressive that many companies follow your blog, but many of us are just on here chattering. We are not out to villify Slawson, etc, but merely making table talk.
DeleteHad to remember myself. Type in "Killdeer North Daktota well mishap contaminated water" in a google search. There will be a 95 page EPA PDF you can read. I didn't read the whole thing. Just pulled it up for you now. Franchuk 44-20SWH well around August 2011. Surface casing compromised 38.5 ft below land surface and possibly 60ft below surface. Well is right next to the aquifer that supplies Killdeer with water. Not sure who the well operator was at the time. Didn't read the specifics. Just remember it happening back then.
ReplyDelete#18637, 501, Denbury Onshore, Franchuk 44-20SWH.
DeleteThe document you refer to was a standard boiler plate (with specifics filled in) for the EPA to investigate a well mishap. It is the planning document to see if water table was compromised.
The fact that one could not find a follow-up media story suggests there was no problem with the aquifer.
The well was off-line for two months in 2011 (July and August) and has produced almost steadily since then (down half the month in August, 2012), and has produced 71K bbls to date (10/12). It appears to be producing better than ever, producing 7,000 bbls in October, 2012.
This is why I am hesitant to post comments without links to sources. Rumors are not good in the oil patch.
Huge apology to Slawson for even mentioning them in the earlier comment. Mishaps do occur and they will happen again, but this one did not involve Slawson, and I have the highest respect for Slawson and "all" the Bakken-centric operators.
In hindsight, that wasn't fair at all to Slawson. And the more I think about it, we have enough critics of what we're doing out here, we don't need to develop more.
DeleteYour post yesterday of locations spent in the military had me thinking about "boot parties" after watching the well blow-out video yesterday. All I could think about is "Great...more negative press."
Merry Christmas Bruce. Again, thank you for your unending work on the blog. You run a respectable ship.
I don't know how respectable the blog is [smile] but I try to be respectable when talking about the Bakken. The non-Bakken posts ... well... maybe not so much.
DeleteI have the highest respect for the roughnecks in in the oil patch and somehow that translates in my mind to the companies they work for. So, I can be faulted for siding with "Big Oil," "Medium Oil," and "Small Oil," but as you noted, there are enough other folks that can provide "negative press."
To readers: some comments/replies may be out of order due to when comments came in and when I replied.