DEP hires petroleum engineer to study well blowout

CLEARFIELD, Pa. - A Texas petroleum engineer arrived here Thursday to investigate last week's natural gas well blowout for Pennsylvania's environmental agency, which now says contamination from the incident may have migrated into a stream.

The Department of Environmental Protection hired John G. Vittitow of Fort Worth to conduct a third-party examination of the accident, the first time an exploration company has lost control of a well since interest in the Marcellus Shale took off.

"We wanted additional expertise," said Neil Weaver, DEP's spokesman.

Vittitow, an expert on well completions, is expected to examine the equipment and records and review the practices employed by the well's operator, EOG Resources Inc., of Houston, and the contractor that was preparing the well to begin production when the blowout occurred June 3.

Nobody was injured in the accident on the well, located at a rural hunting club, and no fire occurred. But DEP Secretary John Hanger has sounded alarms over the operator's performance and cited it as a reason Pennsylvania needs to tax Marcellus Shale gas production.

DEP has suspended the drilling operations of EOG Resources, as well as the operations of C.C. Forbes Co. L.P., the oil-field-services firm whose rig was working on the site. The blowout spewed natural gas and toxic fluids for 16 hours before it was brought under control.

Forbes Energy Services Ltd., of Alice, Texas, said Thursday that it had "voluntarily and proactively" idled the two Marcellus Shale rigs operated by its subsidiary and is cooperating with the investigation.

"Idling of the two rigs will have no material impact on our future results of operations," John Crisp, Forbes Energy's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

DEP's Hanger said Forbes had not been cooperating "to our satisfaction."

In an interview on Pennsylvania Cable Network on Wednesday night, Hanger said that investigators had tried to question Forbes workers, but that the company "had directed its employees not to talk to us without representatives present."

DEP has characterized the environmental damage from the incident as "modest," but Hanger indicated Wednesday that some fluid might have escaped into a nearby stream.