A lack of well control practices and well barriers contributed to a fatal flash fire at a Burleson County, Texas oil and gas well in January 2020, according to a federal report.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) also found that the incident at the Daniel H. Wendland 1-H well also occurred due to a lack of regulations governing onshore oil and gas operations.
3 contract workers dead from fatal burn injuries
The Wendland well was operated by Chesapeake Operating LLC. On Jan. 29, 2020, the company experienced a loss of well control, resulting in an uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons.
Within seconds, the oil and gas that escaped the well found an ignition source, causing a flash fire near the well. A worker who was near the release point died from burn injuries on the scene. Three other workers suffered serious burn injuries, with two of them dying later from those injuries.
All of the injured workers were contractor personnel.
Lack of industry guidance, OSHA regs contributed to incident
CSB investigators found that the owner of the well and its contractors failed to use effective well control measures which led to ineffective well control barriers. The ineffective barriers resulted in a blowout and release of hydrocarbons, which then ignited.
Investigators also pointed out a lack of industry guidance on well control for under-pressured reservoirs such as those found in the Wendland well and an overall lack of regulations for onshore oil and gas operations.
Specific safety issues the CSB found included:
- poor well planning that failed to incorporate industry guidance or lessons learned from the well’s past well control issues
- a lack of industry guidance on methods for well control for completed wells in under-pressured reservoirs
- failure to include industry guidance hazard assessments for controlling ignition sources as there were multiple potential ignition sources around the open wellbore when the incident occurred, and
- the minimal amount of regulations that govern onshore oil and gas drilling and servicing operations.
The CSB recommended that Chesapeake include industry standards relating to well control planning in the company’s operating procedures. It also called on the industry to provide further guidance specifically for well control methods for completed wells in under-pressured reservoirs. The board called on OSHA to include onshore well drilling and well servicing operations in the agency’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard.
