Methane Geyser: Shell Fracking Operation Suspected

EcoWatch reports that the Pennsylvania DEP is investigating a suspected methane migration problem which has caused a methane-driven geyser to erupt from the water well of a hunting cabin in Union Township.

The Suspected source of the methane is a frack site operatoed by Shell on the Guindon farm in Union Township

NPR Reports that Tioga County Emer­gency Ser­vices Coor­di­na­tor Denny Cole­grove suspects that an unmapped, aban­doned gas well more than 70 years old is part of the problem.

The geyser is  now under control, and evacuation is being planned for residents within a 1-mile radius.

If the cause is determined to be a horizontal frack intersecting with an unmapped, improperly abandoned well, then this is great concern for the future of fracking in a state that is littered with thousands of abandoned wells.


[[Location:41.567042,-76.998225]]

Gas Flaring at Scheible Drill Site near Knoxville, PA

During our recent trip to Tioga County, our flight crew spotted a frack site continually flaring off natural gas. The flaring is happening approximately 3 miles south of Knoxville, PA at a drill site on the Scheible farm.

Photo Credit: Bill Howard, The Downstream Project; Aerial support provided by Lighthawk.

Operator: SWEPI LP

Well API: 37-117-21415

Site Name: SCHEIBLE P 898 5H OG WELL

Permit Date: 12/22/2012

Permit Details

Drilling Start Date: 1/9/2012

SPUD Report

Frack Date: 3/20/2012

Frac Focus Report 

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[[Location:41.913758333333, -77.433805555556]]

Gas Pipeline Explosion and Fire - Vermilion Parish, Louisiana

SkyTruth Alerts gave us a heads up that there was an explosion and fire around noon yesterday in the marshes of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.  One caller to the National Response Center noted flames shooting 150' into the air; another caller, perhaps a bit more excited, claimed 800'.  At about the same time, a caller from Texas Gas Transmission Co. detected a huge drop in pressure in one of their gas pipelines, while noting a fireball in the marsh in the vicinity of the pipeline.  The fire was burning so hot that it shows up as a fuzzy red spot in this low-resolution MODIS/Terra band 7-2-1 satellite image, taken yesterday at 1pm local time:

MODIS/Terra 721 satellite image, April 9, 2012 showing fire from inferred gas pipeline rupture in Louisiana. Orange dots are offshore oil and gas platforms in federal waters; orange lines are some of the seafloor oil and gas pipelines.

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[[Location: 29.23301,-91.035783]]

Gas Well Blowout in the North Sea

On March 26, Total reported a gas leak that forced them to evacuate more than 200 workers from a production platform in the Elgin field of the central North Sea, about 150 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland.  The Oil Drum has compiled excellent information about this serious ongoing incident. This Envisat ASAR radar satellite image, taken yesterday at about 9:23 pm local time, shows a patchy slick covering about 89 square kilometers (34 square miles).  The platform itself appears as a very bright spot on the radar image but it's covered up by our yellow rig icon marking the location:

Envisat ASAR image courtesy European Space Agency.

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[[Location: 57.011667,1.837778]]