Massive Methane Leak in California - Worst Catastrophe Since BP Spill?

"Since initially reporting on California's Aliso Canyon gas leak, more details have emerged on the scale (and potential for no solution) of the problem as the infamous Erin Brockovich writes, "the enormity of the Aliso Canyon gas leak cannot be overstated. Gas is escaping through a ruptured pipe more than 8,000 feet underground, and it shows no signs of stopping," as according to the California Air Resources Board, methane - a greenhouse gas 72 times more impactful in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide - has been escaping from the Aliso Canyon site with force equivalent “to a volcanic eruption” for about two months now."

The leak includes not just methane but benzene (a carcinogen) also. Despite frantic efforts, the leak can't be stopped until Spring.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-24/unstoppable-california-gas...

I understand that Delmont, in Westmoreland County, PA, has a huge methane storage well, also. Let's hope it doesn't leak. http://old.post-gazette.com/healthscience/19990322gas2.asp

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Permalink Reply by Barry D on January 5, 2016 at 1:08pm

Paul,

I love the fact that you use a you-tube video as scientific data. A you-tube video of a comedian no less.

This alone should prove to folks that you should not be taken seriously.

I know I don't, for me you are the entertainment on this site.

Permalink Reply by Bob Jenness on January 4, 2016 at 10:52am
Mr. Lilly:
Your misinformed post doesn't deserve the dignity of a reply, but reply I must:

No energy has ever been created by a well. The energy is simply transferred from secure sequestration to waste heat and CO2, and the transfer is only useful if the drilling, transport, sale, and conversion results in a net gain to the global economy you obviously don't understand. If those processes are performed ineptly, as apparently in this case, methane released into the atmosphere is not only wasted, but contributes about 10X to global warming. Read some science and try to understand, unless you're one of the Bubble Conservatives who believe God didn't create science. This progressive really doesn't want to become collateral damage in your crusade nor apocapalypse.
Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on January 4, 2016 at 12:15pm

The way I see it, the 'sequestered' energy contributes mightily to the economy, even prior to harvest if sold outrightly / if drilling rights are leased and thereafter when sold by the producer and used in a myriad of ways.

True enough that the well does not create the energy but only provides the initial route toward it's use (barring unforseen events such as accident / vandalism / some sort of purposed damage / sabotage). Can't rule out ignorant / stupid either (like locating a massive storage reservoir in an earthquake zone for an instance).

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on January 7, 2016 at 4:22am

For the first time since seeing Paul's initial post on this storage well leak, I saw a piece on Fox News channel about this leak this morning  and Marketwatch.com reports that California has finally declared a state of Emergency- It seems as if Gov. Moonbeam finally woke up and became aware of this problem. The Fox News talking head, sadly not one of their attractive women, stated that it was an old well with the casing tacked into place with cement , as opposed to fully cemented annulus from Total depth of the well to surface (a concept easy to envision but much more difficult to achieve in practice). He  declared that the leak was 500 ft below surface (I did not see this in my well record review) and stated that the down hole safety valve had been removed a long time ago and not replaced- I see on the well sketch that one of the tubing nipples that would accommodate a safety valve is unusable.

The one piece of info consistent with every thing reported here and by the Ca. regulators is that a fix is many months away.

Sad, but this is finally getting attention. Obama better find someone's neck to get his boot on, like he said he would do with BP after Macondo.

Brian

Permalink Reply by Barry D on January 7, 2016 at 5:13am

Brian,

How will a declaration a state of emergency affect the repair process?

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on January 7, 2016 at 8:02am

If I understood the FNC talking head correctly, the operator will pay the costs for evacuating the citizens that are affected as well as bear the cost for the relief well and any other remediation, standard practice in the business.

I'll still be looking carefully for the investigation report to see how things were allowed to be permitted with an old converted well with integrity issues.

A State of Emergency won't turn the relief well bit faster, won't get to an intersect point any more quickly, won't kill the offending well any faster, but I guess it makes some folks feel like something is being done.

Brian

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on January 8, 2016 at 4:14am

Measuring and finding methane leaks from an airplane:

“Q: I understand you’re one of the only pilots in the county that measures methane releases?

A: There are maybe three or four aircraft like ours in the U.S. I’m the only one on the West Coast.”

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article53629265.html

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-aliso-canyon-methane-leak-emissions.html

“The state has known for years that aging natural gas infrastructure was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“We need to immediately investigate the best means to draw down this gas, and thus stop leakage much more quickly than the current plan.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dangerous-methane-leak-re...

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on January 10, 2016 at 10:20am

News:

"Last fall, a 7-inch injection well pipe ruptured 500 feet below the surface of Los Angeles, after ferrying natural gas for six decades. The resulting methane leak is now being called one of the largest environmental disasters since the BP oil spill, has pushed thousands of people out of their homes, and has quickly become the single biggest contributor to climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions in California. But it's not the first time this well sprang a leak—and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which owns and operates the well, knew it.

… According to documents filed with the California Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, this particular well, referred to as Standard Sesnon 25, was originally drilled in 1953, and showed signs of leakage 24 years ago, in 1992. Inspectors reported that they could hear the leak through borehole microphones. … Gene Nelson, a professor of physical science at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California who has seen the document, said that he found it “appalling that SoCalGas did not identify this as a well to shut off,” after receiving this feedback.

There have been other problems documented at this facility before. ...In 2013, SoCalGas applied for and received money to do upgrades on equipment like safety valves—money that the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) says should have been used to prevent a leak like this. The regulatory decision filing shows that SoCalGas was granted $898,000 per year (in addition to the regular fund of about $3 million per year for repairs) to replace 5 percent of its safety valves at Aliso Canyon. According to EDF, these extra funds weren’t used as they should have been—to prevent a leak of this magnitude.

… Other safety issues have been pointed out recently, too. Earlier this month, The LA Times reported that attorneys representing some of the 1,000 residents suingSoCalGas over the leak claim the company failed to replace an important safety valve that was removed in 1979—a valve that could have stopped the current leak in its tracks. The plaintiffs also allege that the company again identified leaks at the site five years ago, but never implemented plans to fix them."

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-company-behind-las-methane-dis...

Permalink Reply by Barry D on January 10, 2016 at 12:41pm

Paul,

So, what is your point?

From the information you have posted I gather that the regulatory agencies in CA and the people that work for them, failed to do their jobs. 

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on January 11, 2016 at 2:48am

What a PR nightmare for SoCalGas.

I reviewed more information before posting this response. The header of the noise log ran in 1991 stated distant (maybe distinct) noise at 1200' and 500' measured wireline depth. When the gas pressure was bled off from the casing valve, the measured noise level was even higher.

There were two layers of pipe down to 990 ft (11-3/4" diameter pipe ran and cemented to 990 ft and 7" diameter pipe to 8585 ft) To me, the extra noise after bleed-off may be gas percolating through the standing annular fluid level in the 7" x 11-3/4" annulus; it is not necessarily indicative of a casing failure to me. Noise/temperature logs are run after a shut-in period. After a baseline log is ran and repeated, casing flow was initiated to create a dynamic change in flow conditions; several more log passes were made that showed/confirmed the noise anamolies. The casing used was carbon steel with threaded and coupled connections, which could be susceptible to failure by corrosion, erosion(drill pipe wear) or connection leaks.

Its quite possible to me that the casing flow that was conducted during the 1991 noise log contributed to the casing valve bonnet leak noted in the well records.

SoCalGas better have deep pockets or access to a credit facility to cover their lawsuit losses. They have left enough rope in their publically accessible links so that even a relatively inexperienced expert engineering witness can blow holes in their defense, should they be brave enough to go to trial.

BP didn't fail because of the Deepwater Horizon/ Macondo disaster, but it changed dramatically. I was winding down my career with them by late 2010; my friends who remained behind said it was a much changed company to work for.

Brian

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on February 12, 2016 at 6:27pm

SoCalGas announced today they had plugged the Aliso Canyon methane leak.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-dramatic-video-gas-leak-po...

Meanwhile, this Los Angeles Daily News story reports on other natural gas storage wells around the country, and how much they are leaking. “Twenty-five percent of the warming our planet experiences right now is due to methane, and the largest industrial source of methane is oil and gas."

http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160212/how-the-ga...

The Pittsburgh area’s Oakford storage well is on the map:

Permalink Reply by Barry D on February 13, 2016 at 1:32am

Hey! Chicken Little,

From the article you posted - "...twenty five percent of the warming our planet experiences right now is due to methane,"

First readers should know that there is no proof of that, it's a guess made by pseudo scientists using computer models not actual data collected in the field.

Second, and most important, - only 1.007% of the methane emissions is due to human activity.

The rest comes from natural sources such as volcanoes, leaks in the earth's crust

and farm animals. That's right cow flatulence!

Come back to this site when you have a solution for methane produced by ole bossy and her other barnyard friends.

Just as a side note - the info you keep presenting about methane leaking from oil and gas facilities is old. Recent studies by the EPA show a reduction of these emissions.

In fact, as natural gas production has increased, fugitive methane emissions is on the decline.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

Move along folks, nothing to see here.

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