Pressure spikes detected at more wells
Efforts to ‘kill’ nearby CNX Utica well underway; no environmental damage reported
Spikes in gas pressure have been detected at five more wells near a problematic Utica Shale well in Westmoreland County where several days of efforts to stabilize the problem continued Monday.
CNX Resources Corp. was flaring nine vertical, shallower wells Monday to relieve pressure in them. The shallower, conventional wells experienced pressure spikes after the company saw a sharp drop in gas pressure in the deep, horizontal well named Shaw 1G during fracking operations Jan. 26.
Brian Aiello, a spokesman for Cecil-based CNX, said efforts to “kill” the deep well have begun.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said it was notified that the well control operation kicked off shortly before 5 p.m. Monday and was expected to take three hours.
The company has expanded the search for pressure anomalies in conventional wells to a two-mile radius of each flared well, DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said. “This includes the discovery of an unpermitted private gas well,” she said.
This means that more wells could potentially be determined to be impacted as the company works its way through the area.
It still was unclear Monday what went wrong with the Utica well or how its problem ended up impacting wells thousands of feet away.
Ms. Fraley noted that no environment damage had been reported by field staff at the agency’s oil and gas, safe drinking water and air quality departments.
None of the impacted conventional wells is in the path Shaw 1G horizontal bore, which runs more than a mile in a southeast direction. Instead, the overpressured wells are to the north, west, and east of the Utica well.
Seven of the wells being flared belong to CNX, while two others
are owned by other operators.
So far, the problems seem confined to shallow wells. “DEP has not received any reports of pressure anomalies at nearby Marcellus wells,” Ms. Fraley said.
CNX has been contacting residents, Mr. Aiello said, and has sent contractors to assess water quality at nearby private water wells, although the three property owners closest to the Shaw pad reported they had not yet heard from the water contractors by mid-day Monday.
The flaring on Sunday night lit up the sky “like Armageddon,” said Washington Township resident Jeff Pope. The flames came from across Beaver Run Reservoir, which provides drinking
We’ve lived through all of this since it started in the early 2000s with these shallow wells.” — Jeff Pope, Washington Twp. resident
water to thousands of Westmoreland County residents.
Mr. Pope said he has two main hopes for the situation: “One, that it’s nothing catastrophic, and two, that it slows them down” in the company’s plan to sink more Utica wells.
“We’ve lived through all of this since it started in the early 2000s with these shallow wells,” he said.
On Sunday, a CNX official reached out to Robert “Butch” Shimizzi and told him there’s nothing to worry about with the shallow gas well that delivers heat to his home. But to put his mind at ease, the company offered to switch him to propane.
Mr. Shimizzi declined — at least for now — choosing to accept CNX’s assessment that he is safe.
Washington Township Supervisor Rich Gardner said CNX told him on Monday that “the problem is just about resolved.”
The company said it would issue a press release when the well was brought under control, Mr. Gardner said. No such notice had been sent by late Monday.
“They believe the pressure (on the conventional wells) will be reduced later” Monday, Mr. Gardner said.
He stressed that there had been “no negative effects to residents,” that the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County was monitoring Beaver Run Reservoir and had noted no spills or impacts, and that “everything has been well controlled and contained.”
CNX asked county emergency management officials to establish a nofly zone within a five-mile radius of the Shaw pad.
The limitation applies to all but “relief aircraft operations under direction of Westmoreland police” and is scheduled to expire at 6 p.m. Tuesday.