Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Friday it will immediately resume completion operations in Pennsylvania, a little more than three weeks after voluntarily suspending them following a well blowout in the northeast part of the state.

“We have engaged in a rigorous investigation of the cause of the incident, a thorough examination of our existing operations, and a comprehensive environmental evaluation of the area surrounding the location,” said John K. Reinhart, Chesapeake vice president of operations for its eastern division. “We have learned from this and have taken steps to mitigate the risk of this type of event happening in the future. We are very confident that we will safely resume our completion operations.”

The incident occurred April 19 at the Atgas 2H well in Bradford County (see Shale Daily, April 25). According to Chesapeake, a valve flange connection to the wellhead failed during completion operations, which caused fluid to discharge at high pressure.

“An equipment failure of this type is extremely rare in the industry and is the first valve flange failure of this magnitude in more than 15,000 wells Chesapeake has completed since its founding in 1989,” Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said.

(To read the full story go to shaledaily.com.)

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