MARENGO, Sask. – Durum wheat, oil and gas are the main crops of Marengo. But wheat can’t explode. A gas well, on the other hand, can and did in this rural community near the Alberta border.
Gas began leaking from a survey well and blew up at lunch time on Nov. 29, said Glen Tanaka of C.S.Resources of Calgary.
No one was injured when the $2 million dollar drilling rig was destroyed, said Craig Banks, president of Jade Drilling Inc. of Calgary, the drilling rig owner.
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For farmers only a kilometre away, concern is more about a change in wind direction that would push smoke toward their farms.
“The company has been great about updating us about the situation. They have been coming around and assuring us that the smoke isn’t toxic and that there isn’t any sour gas,” said Shirley Schmaltzbauer, whose farm is a kilometre from the blaze.
“We’re just glad there’s no sour gas in this one. There has been sour gas in the area before and that was our first concern,” said Lois Weisbrod. The Weisbrod farm is closest to the well and Lois’s husband Ken was at home when the well blew up.#
“It rattled the windows in the house, but he thought they were working with steam and it was something to do with that. Then he saw the flames,” said Lois.
Sour gas is the term describing natural gas that contains poisonous hydrogen sulphide. The burning well is a sweet gas well and thus provides only the danger of the fire itself.
Flames could be seen throughout the region and it will likely be toward the end of this week before the well is capped.
“It’s like having a freight train next door,” said Weisbrod, describing the sound of the burning well.
The well blew sweet gas for half a minute before exploding, sources say. During that time, the drilling crew worked feverishly to cut off the flow.
“C.S. (Resources) has always been a really good company to work with and I don’t see any change in that,”said Vince Fiest, the landowner where the well is located. Fiest said he is glad this happened after the ground had frozen, minimizing damage to his cropland.
“There are four other gas wells right beside the fire,” said Ed Schmalzbauer, who also farms nearby. “I’m glad it didn’t get into them. One of them’s mine.”
His wife, Denise, said if the wind changes she will have to leave due to smoke allergies.
“We wish they would drill us out until we wouldn’t want to live here any more,” said Schmalzbauer. “But there is a limit to the land they are going to take up, so I guess we’ll stay, and so will they.”
The well is estimated to have burned five million cubic feet of sweet gas, valued at $5,000 daily.
Only five days after the gas well blowout, an oil storage facility ignited south of Marengo, containing 6,000 barrels of oil in eight tanks.
No one was injured and oil field fire fighting crews were sent from both Kindersley, Sask., and Medicine Hat, Alta., to extinguish the blaze.
