Published: September 24, 2008 12:17 pm            

Rough start for BlackBrush

TOOL —BlackBrush Oil & Gas Co. of San Antonio, which received a drilling permit from this city recently, got off to a rough start when workers spotted the well in the wrong place.

With Galen Hartman, a Lakeway Estates resident, who is also a chemical engineer and an oil and gas company consultant, monitoring their activities closely from his nearby home, it wasn’t long until the problem surfaced.

The well, which city ordinance requires to be no closer than 500 feet from the nearest residence, was drilled within 279 feet of the home of Glen Prestreidge and his wife Linda at 302 Plantation Road.

Hartman measured the distance himself.

BlackBrush officials admitted the mistake and ordered the well shut down voluntarily until the situation could be resolved, Black said.

“They just screwed up,” is the way Hartman put it.

“They just screwed up,” agreed Tool Mayor Mike Black.

In a written statement Tuesday afternoon, BlackBrush officials issued the following:

“Our contractor did make a mistake in spotting the well,” said BlackBrush Communications Specialist, Bruce Kates. “BlackBrush Oil & Gas immediately addressed the issue with the landowner and the Mayor of the City of Tool.

“The well is in compliance with the City of Tool and with the Railroad Commission, and the residents in question are satisfied.

“The site was not contacted out to Lyons. They ARE the drilling company hired by BlackBrush Oil &Gas to drill this well.”

“There’s nothing unusual about contracting that out,” said Black, when asked about BlackBrush using a subcontractor

. “All oil companies contract out part of their work.”

Hartman, the owner of Chemical Analysis, Inc., still insisted Tuesday afternoon that BlackBrush has authorized the drilling of an “illegal well’ in Tool.

When Black reviewed the ordinance, he learned the distance didn’t have to be 500 feet from the nearest home.

Not as long as the residents of the home signed a waiver, agreeing it was OK.

That’s what the Prestreidge family did, according to the mayor.

Attempts to reach Prestreidge about those negotiations were not successful Tuesday afternoon.

The oil well was back in operation late last week, only to be stopped again a few days later, according to the mayor.

A damaged clutch shut down the well a second time, according to Black.

He said Hartman asked him about the shutdown after he went to the site at 4:30 a.m. after hearing the drilling noise subside from his house.

The city, meanwhile, has the option to collect $2,000-a-day in fines for the time the well was operating in violation of the ordinance.

Black said attorneys for the city are looking into those options, but confirms that is one of the options.

Hartman has been dissatisfied with BlackBrush officials from the outset of their Cedar Creek Lake plans.

Hartman noted the drilling started right off when the site was drilled more than 200 feet too close to a residence.

“The thing of it is,” said Hartman, BlackBrush is an extremely sloppy company, Hartman said. “They make a lot of mistakes.

“I listed 16 different mistakes on East Cedar creek, near Enchanted Oaks, and they hadn’t even applied for a permit,” Hartman said he told a crowd at the Enchanted Oaks city council meeting.

BlackBrush officials also responded to that criticism:

“Regarding Mr. Hartman’s comments about 16 so-called “mistakes,” the statement said, “Mr.Hartman is apparently continuing his efforts to drum up business in opposition to our proposed Cedar Creek well by spreading significant misinformation about our project.”

Asked to comment further on “misinformation,” Kates said he was not authorized to elaborate further.

The remainder of the statement:

“While we recognize that Mr. Hartman is entitled to his opinions, his agenda is unclear and we do not believe that he is reviewing our project objectively.

“Further, he has never contacted us directly or attempted in any way to communicate with us regarding the alleged “mistakes.”

(It should be noted that both Hartman and BlackBrush officials have addressed several meetings during the same forums. They answer each others questions and accusations publicly when it’s their time to speak, but they don’t speak directly to each other,nor, apparently do they call one another.)

“As Mr. Hartman correctly points out, we have not even filed our permit application or contingency plan. So whatever he is reviewing is only a draft.”

Hartman insists that BlackBrush officials promised local residents in Payne Springs, Enchanted Oaks and Tool that all of the drilling process at both sites would be done exclusively with BlackBrush employees.

Hartman and Black and BlackBrush disagree about such a promise.

The Tool site has been contracted out to Lyons Drilling.

While the different sides dispute what that commitment was about, BlackBrush officials did make a commitment to use their own employees at the east side location in a meeting with residents at a council meeting in Enchanted Oaks attended by reporters.

BlackBrush officials still hadn’t applied with the Texas Railroad Commission for a drilling permit on the east side of the lake by Tuesday afternoon, according to RRC District Director Michael G. O’Quinn.

There are considerable differences in the two wells.

BlackBrush officials say the one being drilled in Tool stops well short of the H2s gas.

It’s also a straight, vertical well.

The well near Payne Springs runs both vertically and horizontally underneath Cedar Creek Lake, and H2s (sour gas) would have to be negotiated in the process and carried to a plant in Eustace.

Company spokesmen have been fending off vocal critics around the lake area who say they are concerned about the dangers of sour gas., and BlackBrush officials have tried repeatedly to reassure the public of the safety measures that would be enacted.

        

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