C.C. Forbes was putting finishing touches on the well at the Punxsutawney Hunt Club on June 3 when the well blew out, spewing natural gas, drilling fluids, and saltwater from deep inside the earth into the sky for 16 hours. No one was injured, and the natural gas did not ignite, but state officials say the accident was the most serious incident in the short history of the Marcellus Shale boom.
On Monday, DEP Secretary John Hanger suspended the well's operator, Houston-based EOG Resources Inc.
EOG had hired C.C. Forbes to complete the well - to clean it out and connect it to a pipeline.
"We need to fully investigate the equipment used by this company to ensure that other sites in Pennsylvania are not in danger of experiencing similar blowouts that could place the public or our environment at risk," Hanger said in a statement Wednesday.
"This was a serious incident that could have resulted in the loss of life or significant damage to our natural resources, and the department is prepared to use all means necessary to find the cause of the blowout."
A mechanical device called a blowout preventer failed to stop the eruption.
"At this point, we don't know if it was human error, a mechanical failure, or a combination," said Tom Rathbun, DEP spokesman.
Phone messages left with Forbes in Texas were not returned.
Rathbun said he did not know how many Marcellus wells the contractor had worked on.
Elizabeth M. Ivers, a spokeswoman with EOG Resources, the primary party responsible for the well's development, said the company was constrained to comment while the accident was still under investigation.
"The site and the equipment are in the process of being inspected by EOG and DEP," Ivers said. "We're cooperating fully with the investigation."
