Contractors working for the state started testing soil Thursday in Firestone’s Oak Meadows subdivision to determine whether nearby oil and gas operations contributed to a fatal home explosion on April 17.
“The COGCC believes there is no immediate threat to the environment or public safety associated with oil and gas operations in the neighborhood,” Matt Lepore, director of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, said at a press conference.
Lepore said the state took environmental samples at the explosion site and a nearby home after the blast and made sure no wells were operating in the vicinity of the development.
Air testing Wednesday found no fugitive methane or hydrocarbon emissions in the community. he said. Frederick-Firestone Fire Protection District Chief Theodore Poszywak, who is leading the blast investigation, also said Wednesday there was “no threat to surrounding homes.”
State investigators are focusing attention on a well called Coors V6-14JI, located 178 feet from 6312 Twilight Ave., where an explosion .
Gerrity Oil & Gas drilled the vertical well back in 1993. Patina Oil and Gas redrilled the well in 1997 and Noble Energy acquired it in 2005. An asset swap between Noble and Anadarko Petroleum in the Wattenberg Field put the well in Anadarko’s hands in 2014.
An original pipeline from Coors V6-14JI ran north to a tank farm that was removed to accommodate home construction. Another flow line took output to a tank farm to the west after that original line was shut down.
that it would voluntarily shut in 3,000 wells in northeastern Colorado that were drilled in the same vintage as the well nearest the home. Anadarko, Colorado’s largest oil and gas producer, plans to take two to four weeks to test all the older vertical wells and related pipelines to make sure they are safe.
“Anadarko’s decision was taken by Anadarko voluntarily out of an abundance of caution,” Lepore said, adding that the shutdown of the wells began before the announcement Wednesday.
Depending on what the state investigation finds, Lepore said it is possible that regulators could require producers in that area and across the state to take additional actions.
Unlike the natural gas that utilities pipe into homes, gas leaking from wells or gathering pipelines can be odorless and difficult to detect without equipment. Soil testing will help determine whether hydrocarbons from the well or related pipelines might have leaked.
Setback rules the state approved in 2013 require new oil and gas wells to locate 500 or more feet beyond existing homes, in part to provide a cushion of safety for residents.
But the setback rules work in one direction, and the state leaves it up to local governments to regulate how close construction can come to existing oil and gas developments.
Lepore said was aware of only two home explosions in recent history linked to oil and gas operations. The two, in southern Colorado, involved homes located on top of or near abandoned wells.
Coors V6-14JI was actively producing oil and gas at the time of the explosion. But state records show it was shut in last year and that production resumed in January.
