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Merry fracking Christmas: Venting sour gas in Booger, Texas

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Sent by a regular reader. Are they trying to send Santa a signal?

This is an Encana well site just south of Franklin (the capital of Booger County)ha. It is sour per the RRC. ~Love, Regular Reader

Sour gas is H2S which is deadly.

This is a typical Christmas in the gas patch. You see, all the regulators are off so there is no one to call, which makes it convenient for the operators. But the regulators aren’t much help anyway.

 

In observance of the Christmas holidays, the Railroad Commission of Texas will close at noon on Friday, Dec. 21, and will reopen Thursday, Dec. 27. The RRC will be closed on Dec. 31 and reopen for business on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013.

You are on your own. 

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  2. Anonymous says

    Looks to me it is sour raw natural gas being vented. The TCEQ does not concern itself, at all, regarding the venting of methane. It’s all legal.

  3. Karen Scribner says

    After Christmas 2010 I smelled a strange odor when I was outside and figured someone was burning wrapping paper and put in a little garbage. Months later I learned they had been fracking a well about 1 1/2 miles due south of our house. Later, in 2001 when I attended the informational meetings about fracking, I learned from Dr Wilma Subra that the gases they vent are valuable and they are wasting money by not capturing the tons of emissons from each well. Wouldn’t just that be a reason not to waste? Nevermind that people like to breathe clean air and drink/barthe with water from a lake that has not been polluted with gases floating down into the water.

    • GhostBlogger says

      Yes, that sounds logical, Karen, but, there’s been horrific accidents with refineries and pipelines, where spending a few dollars on fixing something was judged to be either too expensive, or not needed. Just a few examples:

      1989: A pipeline under a derailment site in San Bernardino CA exploded after it was restarted. The pipeline company skipped a hydrostatic test, feeling that digging a pot hole every 50 feet would catch damage to the line. It didn’t.

      1996: A Koch butane pipeline knew they had external corrosion issues, but, felt they had fixed the worst of that after a repair blitz, and so they skipped fixing some area of that pipeline. It ruptured in Lively TX, the leak ignited with 2 people in the butane cloud, killing them. Look up “Smalley Foundation” on the web for details.

      2005: The BP Texas City TX Refinery explodes after a vent stack had sprayed light hydrocarbons for gasoline blending over the area. Just fixing a few broken level sensors would have prevented this accident, per the CSB.

      2005: BP on the North Slope of Alaska skipped running a cleaning pig in a crude oil line, necessary to prevent corrosion. But, they wanted to save money. So, that pipeline corrodes badly & leaks in several sections. Crude oil prices went up worldwide from that accident.

  6. GhostBlogger says

    Oil well out of control: Geyser of oil, gas near Watford City ND

    http://m.bismarcktribune.com/bakken/oil-well-out-of-control-geyser-of-oil-gas-near/article_c577b4a4-4cb1-11e2-a913-001a4bcf887a.html

    “Kris Roberts, environmental geologist for the State Health Department, who’s on site, said contamination is spreading a mile or more downwind, partly because of the high pressure in the well and partly because of the elevation of the blowout.”

    At least some states take well incidents seriously!

  7. HighPlainsDrifter says

    This is a safety mechanism DUMMIES! If you look closely, instead of looking at the Vapor, you can see that the well is surrounded by cement blocks meaning that it is a cavern well, thanks to the RRC it is equipped with safety mechanisms to control OVERPRESSURE situations. Thanks to rules we don’t have another Brenham explosion. Go get your Star Timmy.

    • TXsharon says

      We are not dummies. We understand that this is a release due to pressure. We know all about this because we live in the fracking gas patch. It makes no difference if it’s a planned release or an accidental release or…it is still a release of sour gas into the air we breathe.

      If you can’t figure out how to operate your equipment without releasing toxic gas into the air we breathe, then you are the dummies.

    • Andy Mechling says

      High Plains;
      I am not familiar with the terminology “cavern well”; I would appreciate it if you could elaborate for us.
      How does this relate to injection wells, or completed wells. Based on the photo; does this appear to be a producing well?
      I admit, Im pretty much a dummy. Thanks.

      • HighPlainsDrifter says

        A cavern well can be an injection well or a disposal well, it is a completed well so it had to conform to SWR 46 or 9 concerning completions for each. Cavern wells along the coast use salt diapir formations and northerly operators use bedded salt for the cavers.
        There is a lot of gas on the Market right now and much of it is being stored in salt and other formations,

        • Anonymous says

          High Plains:
          I’ll bet there is NO CAVERN near this well for this to be called a ‘cavern well’ per your blog.
          I think it is a “kill” well for some for some bad stuff that is going on nearby like an underground blowout. Underground blowouts are not required to be reported to anybody including the RRC or the TCEQ.
          If I’m wrong straighten me out!