A North Dakota oil well owned by Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy blew out on Saturday, leaking more than 550 barrels (23,100 gallons) of crude, some of which left the wellpad and seeped into surrounding grasses.
The well, located in a rural area 25 miles southeast of Watford City, was being hydraulic fractured when its pressure control valves failed and it leaked the oil and about 110 barrels (4,620) of saltwater.
The well was brought under control on Sunday morning. No one was injured.
The well, Deep Creek Federal 43X-5D (#30042), is located on the same drilling pad as four other wells and was first drilled on April 25.This is on a 5-well pad. Two were older wells, completed some time ago. Two new wells are on the pad, and one of them was one that had the blowout.
A quick look at the other two older wells on the pad: one had a minimal geologist's report; the other has a pretty in-depth report. Background gases jumped up to over 8,000 during various pipe connections. That's fairly high pressure in the Bakken, but not unusual. If there are no equipment failures, it seems operators deal with these pressures without incident ....
... the reader that alerted me to the story had some thoughts/insights on background. There is no question the operator will study this very, very hard and will learn more about the Bakken if it turns out that all equipment and parts (valves, etc) were in good working order and that all procedures were followed.
The size of the blowout is a fairly significant: 550 bbls. Significant in terms of getting one's attention if one was on-site or in the area to observe it. The typical storage tank on-site in the Bakken is 400 bbls.
Disclaimer: my maps may have mistakes. If this information is important to you, go to the source: Reuters and the NDIC.
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