Penn Department of Environmental Protection

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined a subsidiary of CNX Resources Corp. $175,000 for a well failure that allowed natural gas to seep into nine neighboring wells. 

The company was forced to flare the gas from the wells for several days to relieve pressure.

Following investigation, the Canonsburg, PA-based independent and DEP agreed that cracks in casing pipe likely caused the blowout at the Shaw 1G well in Westmoreland County in late January 2019, according to the consent order.

In connection with the failure, which occurred near a drinking water reservoir, DEP cited CNX for several environmental regulation violations, including failure to maintain well integrity and venting gas to the atmosphere.

No spills or releases of fluids to...