Gas fire could cost $5M

SASKATOON — A destructive natural gas well fire burning near Prud’homme could cost between $5 and $10 million to extinguish and repair, a TransGas spokesman said.

Despite the hefty bill, the utility’s bosses hope insurance will cover much of the cost of repairing the wellhead, calling in specialized contractors, and replacing the value of lost gas.

Spokesman Dave Burdeniuk said TransGas doesn’t expect the costly incident to affect natural gas prices in Saskatchewan.

TransGas, which is a subsidiary of Crown corporation SaskEnergy, won’t ask the government for any financial help with the mopup, Burdeniuk said.

“All these costs are paid out of existing operations, emergency and contingency funds that we always have in place as a utility and a pipeline operator.”

Thursday marked the sixth day flames were shooting into the air above a natural gas wellhead about 90 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

At its peak, the flames have been as high as 75 metres.

Thirteen people who live on four nearby farms have twice left their homes on the instructions of emergency personnel. Burdeniuk said he hopes they can return home today.

TransGas called in Calgary specialty contractor Safety Boss, which has been strategizing how best to extinguish the well fire.

Workers were to march into the flames in specially protected heavy equipment Thursday to install a new wellhead and hopefully snuff out the fire.

However, Burdeniuk said workers were still preparing for the carefully orchestrated event, installing steel cages and tin on machines to protect the people and the hydraulics.

“We’re prepared to wait because we just want to make sure that this gets put out, and it’s done in such a way that we continue with this process with no one getting hurt in any of the incidents,” Burdeniuk said.

The well leads to one of seven natural gas-storing caverns about six kilometres south of Prud’homme. TransGas uses the caverns to stash natural gas for use when demand surges in winter.

The site is part of a network of 26 storage caverns across Saskatchewan.

Burdeniuk has said about 1.6 per cent of the province’s natural gas supply was in the affected cavern. If it all burns off in the fire, the utility still has plenty of natural gas for the coming winter, he said.

The well fire is the first incident of its kind at a Saskatchewan natural gas cavern since the company began using them for storage in the 1960s.