New Record Fine Against Gas Company

[tobewan77]

Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy more than $1 million on Tuesday

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/18/chesapeake-energy-gas-drilling-pa-fine_n_863509.html

At least some slap has happened. Will be interesting to see how all this unfolds.

 

[pcray1231]

Finally a reasonable fine. It's been a long time coming.

But a steep fine for a verified incident of severe pollution is one thing. The fines for the screw ups resulting in only "near misses" or minor cases of pollution should be high as well. It needs to be perfectly clear that there is no leeway, and that being safe and "robust" in regards to operating procedures is the ONLY way to make money in this industry.

 

[franklin]

I heard one driller had 25 well casing failures in a row due to a cement problem. Wonder if that was Chesapeake?

 

[pcray1231]

wow, that'd be real bad. In PA, I only know of the 2 wells that leaked methane due to casing issues (which is still too many). Bradford and Dimock. If there's 23 others, that's BIG news, and not the good kind. Got any links?

Couple of other surface blowouts/spills of fluids, which is less severe and heals quicker.

 

[franklin]

pcray1231 wrote:
wow, that'd be real bad. In PA, I only know of the 2 wells that leaked methane due to casing issues (which is still too many). Bradford and Dimock. If there's 23 others, that's BIG news, and not the good kind. Got any links?

Couple of other surface blowouts/spills of fluids, which is less severe and heals quicker.

If I remember right they had a problem with the first one. Then went and tested the others before any fracking so it did not get to the point of serious methane leakage. I wonder if it wasn't Chesapeake and the state made them test the others after the initial problem?

BTW if you have methane leaking into the ground water in a large state forest who knows? Only a hand full of CCC era cabins in most of those areas.

 

[pcray1231]

you have any documentation? I'd like to read it....

There's methane coming up if it's drilled, whether or not they fracked it. Maybe not as much or as high of pressure, but plenty enough to cause problems.

 

[franklin]

pcray1231 wrote:
you have any documentation? I'd like to read it....

There's methane coming up if it's drilled, whether or not they fracked it. Maybe not as much or as high of pressure, but plenty enough to cause problems.

I can't remember the site. I spend a couple hours a day researching drilling and if I don't bookmark it at the time it gets lost. I was looking into another drilling related item when I read it. As I remember it was mentioned in passing, not the key item in the article. It did not include details other than a number in the mid 20s. I think 25 or 26. And that they were cement failures. I believe voids after curing.

Reading documents on the DEP WEB site I believe pressure tests can be performed on various section of a well casing. I'm not sure that if a section fails testing that the whole well will leak or will leak initially.

 

[pcray1231]

Reading documents on the DEP WEB site I believe pressure tests can be performed on various section of a well casing.

Yes, they can and do, and I think they do it at an earlier stage (before they've drilled to depth).

However, this would find only failures in installation, or sealing at the bottom (end of the pipe, so methane/fluid can't get around). It may also catch some extremely weak points in the steel/concrete structure.

But many failures happen in use, after time. So the casing would stand up at first, and then fail after months or years in a high stress, corrosive, and carburizing environment.

 

[franklin]

A form you may be interested in. Note the Rev 1 2011 date.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/subject/advcoun/oil_gas/2011/Draft_Mech_Int_Instruction_Revised_2-15-11.pdf