Emergency

An emergency order that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued against Range Resources Corp. late last year for alleged contamination of water wells in North Texas was allowed to stand by a federal judge in Dallas pending the outcome of an appeals court case in New Orleans in which Range is seeking dismissal of the EPA order. A stay was issued in the Dallas federal court case, and the judge there also declined to impose fines on Range that had been sought by EPA. Earlier this year Range was cleared of fouling the water wells by the Railroad Commission of Texas, which had objected to EPA’s involvement in the case (see Shale Daily, March 23).

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) planned to hold an emergency meeting Friday (March 4) to consider a staff request that injection of natural gas drilling waste be halted at two disposal wells while a potential connection to earthquakes in the region is considered.

FERC last week launched a staff inquiry into the energy disruptions that occurred across the Southwest early this month as a result of a severe cold snap that affected energy operations from Southern California to Texas from the wellhead to the burnertip (see NGI, Feb. 7).

Thirty Texas lawmakers recently wrote to Gov. Rick Perry seeking an emergency proclamation for additional air monitors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to track emissions from Barnett Shale natural gas activity.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Thursday declared a state of emergency due to natural gas service outages across the state, ordering all nonessential personnel to stay home. Temperatures in Albuquerque Thursday night were forecast to go as low as 9 degrees.

PAA Natural Gas Storage LP said Wednesday an “incident” and related fire occurred at about 9 a.m. EST at the gas handling portion of its Bluewater Natural Gas Storage facility in St. Clair County, MI. “The facility’s emergency shut-off valves functioned as anticipated and the fire was quickly extinguished. One employee received minor burns. There were no other injuries,” the partnership said. The gas handling facility is currently shut down. The cause of the incident and the impact to the damaged surface equipment and facility operations are being assessed.

The risk management and emergency response plans of BP America and Transocean Ltd. for accidental oil and gas releases have garnered lawmaker scrutiny as a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil slick grows following an apparent well blowout last week.

The risk management and emergency response plans of BP America and Transocean Ltd. for accidental oil and gas releases have garnered lawmaker scrutiny as a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil slick grows following an apparent well blowout last week.

Southern California Gas said Friday the loss of 300 MMcf/d of storage injection capacity due to emergency turbine repairs at its Aliso Canyon facility had ended as expected.