Flowline

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has postponed until Feb. 13 action on the final rules for oil and natural gas flowlines after hearing testimony from stakeholders this week.

Colorado regulators have published draft rules for oil and natural gas flowlines that would no longer exempt operators from pressure testing and monitoring low-pressure pipelines, as is currently required for larger diameter systems.

Colorado oil and natural gas regulators said 428 natural gas well flowlines tested by operators in the state — a miniscule number overall — failed integrity tests conducted in the wake of a fatal home explosion in Weld County earlier this year.

Colorado regulators have outlined plans governing oversight of oil and natural gas flowlines, updated regulations which could be ready for final adoption later this year.

In the aftermath of a deadly flowline explosion in Firestone last April, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday proposed a series of regulatory and legislative changes for oil and natural gas operations in the state.

Colorado officials on Friday indicated that proposed rules for the oil and natural gas industry are coming, with some as early as this week.

Only a “handful” of smaller operators had yet to submit requested data regarding flowlines to the state following a mandate by the governor last month, but the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) was not ready to conclude that the industry is fully complying following a fatal explosion in April of an abandoned flowline from a well sited about 170 feet from a home.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the largest oil and natural gas producer in Colorado, is disconnecting all of the 1-inch natural gas flowlines that run underground from its vertical wells in northeastern Colorado in response to a fatal home explosion in Firestone last month.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday called for a statewide review of oil and natural gas operations after a preliminary investigation determined that an abandoned and severed unrefined natural gas flowline was linked to a fatal home explosion in Weld County.