oil well explosion

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1,939
Location
Oliver Springs, TN
Let me start this story by explaining where I live. I live in East Tennessee in a small town of about 3500. I live in the "burbs" outside of town on a dead end street. It's about two miles long and about 50 families live on the entire road.

For the past couple years with oil prices going crazy there has been a huge increase in drilling for oil all around this area. Easily within 1-mile radius of the house there are probably 40 oil wells. Just off the road I live on within 100-200 feet of the road are 5 wells.

Now here’s the story. Just up the road about 200 yards they have been putting in another well. It usually takes about 2 - 3 weeks to get one in. They hit what they called a large pressure pocket Tuesday around 1 pm and it began blowing gas and oil. The only way to describe the sound is that it sounded like a jet engine. They worked through out the day and night trying to get it capped and were having trouble. The well is only about 100 - 150 feet off the road. The blowing oil saturated a large area all around the well even running into the road. The smell of gas was strong all night. Tanker trucks came in and out all night long caring out the excess oil they were pumping from an over flow pit.

I was getting ready to go to work and had stepped out onto my porch to see if I needed a jacket and if it was raining. There is a small strip of trees between my house and the drilling site. I was looking in that direction when somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45am I thought the gates of hell had been opened. The entire place exploded! I felt a heat wave and the house shook. I have never been so terrified in my entire life. I don’t know how, but thank God no one was killed. A lot of property damage however. I think about 2 to 3 acres went up in about 15 seconds.

Here are a few pics of the day it happened. I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics. They are a little blurry I wasn't really concerned with quality at that moment. The first one is about 15 min after it happened. The trees are about 45 - 50 feet tall and close to the center is a small rectangular area that's a transformer on a power pole. A crew from Texas in here now working to put it out. I've included some shots of them.
 

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Wow glad you are okay and your house is still there.

Still, how come nothing exciting like this happens near where I live? Just boring wind and snow. (Well maybe a few chainsaw cuts and snowmobile accidents :) )
 
Ken,

Word from the oil company is that the well had a blowout preventer, but it malfunctioned.
We (the community) had a meeting with EPA reps today and they said air samples were fine and water samples of a creek that runs through my property have been taken and will be back Monday. Oil is in the creek you can see it :( My kids play in the creek.

A couple night shots
 

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That's pretty wild! Can't believe no one was seriously injured from that! Glad you're ok, but I imagine you had to change shorts before work!
 
Yup!....Oil wells can be dangerous......that is why they make "blowout preventers"!

Unfortunately, they have been known to not work at times. Another factor is that some "Drilling Contractors" get to moving from one well location to another as quickly as possible, and don't pull them apart for cleaning, lubrication and then regular testing as often as they shoud and then when you need them the most.............. you can't close the things.:bang:

Sure glad no one was hurt, they were real lucky, because with that much gas and vapor floating around, almost anything could set it off at any time.
 
Wow, that had to have gotten your attention. :eek: Glad you didn't have any more damage than you did (the creek doesn't sound promising, although they are somewhat self-cleaning).
 
Unfortunately, they have been known to not work at times. Another factor is that some "Drilling Contractors" get to moving from one well location to another as quickly as possible, and don't pull them apart for cleaning, lubrication and then regular testing as often as they shoud and then when you need them the most.............. you can't close the things.:bang:

Sure glad no one was hurt, they were real lucky, because with that much gas and vapor floating around, almost anything could set it off at any time.


Yeah......I roughnecked for my Dad. He died of a heart attack on the floor of a rig in 1972. When I worked for him and we worked "daylights"...he always tested the things. We would often find ourselves down there in the mud......removing the rams.....cleaning lubricating and testing again....until they worked. Some folks thought he was a little anal...Now some of them would understand.:D
 
BTW John.....blowout preventers.....often there are 2 or more set of controls.....one on the rig floor.........one or more located somewhere away from the immediate area of the rig.....just in case they have a blowout ....they can escape the area and still engage them. Most of the ones I worked around had multiple sets of rams ....one would close on drill pipe.....one would close on drill collars.....one would close on an open hole if you didn't have anything in the hole and one was a set of blind rams IIRC.....rubber inserts that would close on anything in the hole including the Kelly......I haven't worked on the floor of a rig since the summer of 1976 when I was on leave from the Navy and worked 2 weeks for my brother who was a driller at the time. I worked 2 of the 4 weeks of leave I took....brother got 2 weeks of needed vacation with his family and I got some additional income to supplement my E-6 Navy salary. It's been 30 years so my memory could be a little fuzzy......

I do remember spending Christmas Eve of 1966 on the floor of rig all night in freezing rain...near Newton, Illinois. There they didn't cover the rigs so you were totally exposed to the elements. I was a senior in high school at the time and I told myself there had to be a better way of making a living. I suppose that's why I studied so hard and got into electronics.....

My brother.....he left the rigs at age 33 and went to college. Got his degree in electronics. He, his wife and his 2 daughters paid the price but he's not on rig floors anymore either.:D

I'm former oil field trash and proud of it.....:huh:
 
Too close for comfort!

As long as the wind cooperates, and blows the right away, things should not be too bad. But be prepared to lockup and move away if things change. A nice holiday at their expense eh?. A good record of what happened and any impacts to you and your property are good to have. Sounds like the mud pressure was underbalanced for the zone they should have known and been prepared for.
Take Care
 
Thanks for the info Ken. After watching those men on the rig work I have the utmost respect for them, and the oil well fire fighters. I don't want any part of it!

I talked to the neighbor yesterday, he said that the guy over the rig said he has been drilling for over 40 years and had alway hoped to hit a well like this one. He called it a "dream well".

I spoke to the guy over the oil company today to see how everything was going (they have my land leased). He said he knew this area had potential, but nothing like this. I, knowing nothing about oil wells asked if it was a good well. He said this would be a world class well anywhere. He thinks they can salvage the well.
 
... I spoke to the guy over the oil company today to see how everything was going (they have my land leased). He said he knew this area had potential, but nothing like this. I, knowing nothing about oil wells asked if it was a good well. He said this would be a world class well anywhere. He thinks they can salvage the well.
For some reason the theme song to the Beverly Hillbillies just popped into my head. :p

Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named John...
Poor sawdust-maker just trying to get along.
Then one day he was sittin' on the porch,
And BOOM! went the oil rig; burned up like a torch.
 
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