Published: August 13, 2008 09:28 am            

Chamber members learn about sour gas

BlackBrush Oil explains drilling process

GUN BARREL CITY —

The question was direct, and to the point:

“What’s the kill zone?” the woman in the audience at Vetoni’s asked.

She was wanting to know at what point escaping sour gas from an oil well blowout might kill her — or others living too close to the site under consideration.

It was one of several questions from concerned lake residents at the monthly Cedar Creek Chamber of Commerce luncheon, where speakers were discussing the pros and cons of a drilling project, one currently being considered by BlackBrush Oil & Gas Company.

The project has aroused controversy, even though BlackBrush has yet to apply to the Texas Railroad Commission for a drilling permit.

Since word got out the San Antonio company was interested in going after 700 to 800 million barrels of oil, which was located in the 80s, under Cedar Creek Lake.

Phillip Meezley, a representative for BlackBrush, was on hand to allay fears about such a project, and also to assure lake residents that the company had no intention of sneaking in and drilling before anybody knew what happened.

Mike O’Quinn, district director for the Railroad Commission of Texas, and Phillip Meezley, with BlackBrush, explained the built-in-protections that make such a blowout highly unlikely, there was this:

Texas had 27 blowouts last year at drilling sites around the state. O’Quinn said that sounds like a lot but considering the number of wells drilled, it wasn’t that much.

Nor were the blowouts of the catastrophic type, such as the 1976 disaster that killed nine people in Denver City in far West Texas.

Thus, the reason for the “kill zone” question from the audience.

Mark Lay, in the RRC district office in Kilgore, said Monday, 500 parts per million is very dangerous but not absolutely fatal.

He said it would take possibly 700 parts per million for people to begin dying after just a minute of exposure, according to an RRC official.

Though know one in Texas has died from too much sour gas exposure in 32 years and experts say improved engineering and technology make it unlikely, here's Lay’s description of what happens if and when H2s is ingested at those high levels:

“As chemicals enter the lungs, the blood is trying to oxidize this stuff,” he explained.

“What happens is it is ingested at such a great concentration that the blood can’t oxidize the higher concentration levels.

“So it goes straight to the blood streams. Compounds then go to the nerve centers in the brains, shutting down the lungs and the pulmonary system.

“This is turn, numbs the brain, so the organs don’t work.”

Not to lose perspective, Lay said the blowouts people see on TV with John Wayne, although they do sometimes occur, are far more often, minor amounts of gas and water.

Some don’t even catch fire.

“Some may go a few hours, but most are not that severe,” he said.

Lay said public deaths do occur on these rigs, but it’s usually from people who get hurt or killed on the job, just as with any other kind of oil drilling.

“We’re not out to get one drilled quickly,” Meesley assured the audience. He said word got out sooner than the company had hoped, and it led to rumors that the San Antonio company was trying to get its drilling rigs in place before the public had time to react.

He said that’s not at all true.

After about 80 days, the only imprint left by the drilling venture would be located in a 20-acre corner on State Highway 198 in Payne Springs.

It would stand about eight feet tall, and behind some trees, hardly noticeable, Meezley said.

If and when BlackBrush decides to apply for a permit from the RRC, it would still have to come up with a contingency plan for evacuating citizens, and that would also have to be approved by the RRC.

The drilling project would involve extensive horizontal drilling, which leaves less of an impact above ground, because all of the oil is funneled to far fewer wells.

According to Horizontal Drilling Dot. Org says instead of drilling 20 wells, an oil company could drill a couple of wells and wind up with the same recovery.

        

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