I've been meaning to get to your post for a few days, but was waiting until I was at a keyboard - 99% of the time I'm accessing the board from my phone.
I'm not clear on the details... But shouldn't the regulatory restrictions on oil and gas wells already control the proper execution of procedures related to abandoned lines? Given all of the crazy rules I have encountered related to land development, utilities, and water rights (a biggie here in the high desert) it's hard for me to believe that abandoning an underground line for transporting raw natural gas doesn't at least involve some inspections.
Each state is different so perhaps Colorado doesn't have the regulations? I'd almost be more inclined to believe that the regulatory bureaucracy was incompetent.
Before I give my understanding of the situation and my personal opinions, in full disclosure I'll state that I work for a natural gas company, although we do not have any operations in Colorado.
My understanding of what happened:
- Anadarko bought around 3.000 natural gas wells in the early 90s.
- For a long period of time, the wells were producing and nothing happened.
- Several years ago, Anadarko temporarily shut-in the well in question, along with many of its other wells in the area.
- During this time, a new housing development went in very closeby.
- During excavation of the housing development, the gathering line associated with the well in question was severed.
- Just for your own understanding, all natural gas wells have gathering lines (pipelines buried usually around 5-10 feet underground) that carry gas from individual wells to a larger pipeline.
- Several months ago, Anadarko opened up the well for production again.
- Natural gas and propane (in gas form) leaked from the severed gathering line into the soil nearby.
- Two men nearby caused an explosion when they lit a flame in the basement of the exploding house while installing a water heater. Both men died, and the wife of one of the men was injured.
This obviously begs the questions - who was at fault, and could anything have been done to prevent this?
My personal opinions:
- The company performing the excavation working in the early stages of the development didn't know they had severed a gathering line. This was either due to them not performing due diligence about buried gas and electrical lines nearby, or Anadarko not taking proper steps to inform the developers about buried gas lines in the vicinity.
- Before Anadarko opened the nearby well for production again, they did not pressure test the gathering line to ensure there were no leaks. Such a test would likely have identified that the gathering line was severed. I'm not sure whether Colorado currently has regulations that require such pressure testing to be performed before "turning on" a shut-in well. As a side note, Colorado does have the most stringent regulations in the country regarding oil and gas development - even more so than California.
- Ultimately, Anadarko will be held liable for the explosion. Although the construction company may ultimately be responsible for severing the gathering line in the first place, Anadarko should have pressure tested the gathering line before it re-commenced production on the nearby well.
- This unfortunate incident had nothing to do with fracking, the close proximity of the well to the housing development, or any common risks in the oil and gas industry (the press conference by the local investigators said as much). This was due to a set of unusual circumstances (likely oversights by Anadarko and the construction company) that led to the death of two individuals.
You and your family shouldn't be concerned about a similar incident happening to you. This was a very unusual and unfortunate set of circumstances likely caused by oversight of key individuals or the companies involved.
Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any concerns. I'll answer to the best of my abilities, although I'm only an accountant, not an engineer who directly deals with these sorts of issues!
