Lightning loves gas facilities, another of the many issues industry needs to solve. This facility was a disposal/injection well.
Wise County Gas Well Fire Under Control After Lightning Strike
8 of 10 tanks along state Highway 199 exploded, burned Wednesday
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.
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That saltwater burns pretty good, huh?
That’s always been so interesting to me.
“Eight of the 10 tanks at the site EXPLODED and BURNED in the fire. The tanks contained OIL and SALTWATER, which is a byproduct of the extraction process.
Firefighters who responded could DO LITTLE but douse the tanks with water and foam because of the intensity of flames and the supply of FUEL for the fire.”
I think the report was pretty frackin’ soft on this one. 8 of the 10 tanks exploded, and there was little the firefighters could do? The tanks only contained saltwater and oil? Must have been quite more oil than saltwater. Not to mention the fact that a family had to be what Matt Pitzrella would call ‘temporarily relocated’ due to the strong fumes.
I think the reality is that there were a few of these tanks holding condensate and that is what exploded and burned, and what amounted to the ‘fuel’ of the fire.
Might’ve cost what $100, maybe $200 tops for a lightning rod? Glad to know the operator is such a Good Neighbor to the family that was ‘temporarily relocated’.
Lightning strikes all kinds of things. OKC lost a restaurant during the same storm system which, was very electrically charged, as you probably noticed.
I am sure both the dining establishment and the tank battery had lightning “arrestors” installed. It’s not lightning prevention, just an attempt to channel what they can to the ground. A direct hit will ALWAYS cause more damage that ANY “lightning rod” could be expected to prevent. The energy transmitted from cloud to ground is impressive.
Also, the separation process of water from hydrocarbons isn’t 100%. some oil & gas will end up in a water tank & if a spark is present, it will ignite.
It’s great that no one was hurt & temporarily moving them out of harms way was all that was required.
I wonder what the odds are that one person could witness 2 lightening strikes on gas well in 13 months as I did. On my route to my former job, I personally witnessed 2 strikes but I also passed numerous other gas wells that were struck but I did not witness the actual strike and explosion. Seems to happen most frequently to oil & gas wells. I have no clue why though.
Actually, Nick, lightning rods/arrestors are not common on tank batteries. We’re talking about the same Industry that doesn’t begin to see the problem with installing these toxic waste facilities next to homes, churches, apartment buildings, installing anything that remotely has the well being of the family forced to live next to it.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who come up with a million rationalizations to promote natural gas development, as long as they themselves do not have to live with any of it. If it’s all so fracking safe and wonderful, why is there not one gas company exec with a well, tank battery, dehydration unit, compressor station, pipeline, metering station, etc., within a stone’s throw of their home?
Exxon’s Rex Tillerson actually protested the installation of a water tower near his home because it ‘ruined his view’ from his back porch. This is the same gigantic gashole who puts gas wells right next to people’s homes everyday without so much as an errant thought about the consequences to those people.
Exactly how many families were forced from their homes when that restaurant in OKC was hit?
Point well taken..Drilling in residential subdivisions is a step that has not been realistically justified by anyone, that I am aware of. Once we get to the point of energy desperation, maybe BUT, we aren’t there YET.
We install arrestors on our towers but, we have also witnessed lightning strikes that have destroyed them as well. A lightning strike isn’t something we can actually prevent, just TRY to minimize the indirect shots.
Do we know the name of the injection well involved?
It might be interesting to look at this permit. Some of the disposal wells there in Wise county have interesting histories. Consider:
OIL AND GAS DOCKET NO. 09-0236695
THE APPLICATION OF HYDRO-FX, INC., TO DISPOSE OF OIL AND GAS WASTE BY INJECTION INTO A POROUS FORMATION NOT PRODUCTIVE OF OIL OR GAS, HYDRO-FX WELL NO. 1-SWD, NEWARK EAST (BARNETT SHALE) FIELD, WISE COUNTY, TEXAS.
“Proposal for decision issued: June 8, 2004
The protestants submitted a Railroad Commission memorandum, dated February 10, 2004, from the Oil and Gas Division that noted:
The dense concentration of Wise County disposal wells, many utilizing the same shallow injection interval, has created conditions that increase the risk that injected fluids could escape the injection
interval and result in environmental problems….
According to this memorandum, there are documented instances in northern Wise County where disposal fluid has broken out on the surface, due largely to undocumented and/or improperly plugged wellbores. Disposal wells have caused problems in wells farther away than the standard 1/4 mile area of review. Therefore, the memorandum recommends, inter alia, that disposal wells in Wise, Denton and Tarrant Counties that will inject fluids at less than 2000′, “[d]emonstrate disposal zone isolation in all wellbores within a ½-mile area of review.” “
If you want to know what is in the tanks, ask the TRRC–they will tell you that is is only SAAAALT WAAATER–and if you insist on testing, they will go out and test the contents and they only test for chlorine/chlorides (table salt) and then the results will be announced that ‘we told you so–it’s only salt water’.