Gas in Texan water wells may not be from Range activities: official

Houston (Platts)--3Jan2011/607 pm EST/2307 GMT

Despite a December order by the US Environmental Protection Agency, methane gas found in two private water wells in Parker County, Texas, might not have come from nearby natural gas wells drilled by Range Resources, a local water quality official said Monday.

"At this point we don't have adequate information to decide if the company is responsible," said Bob Patterson, general manager of the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District.

Patterson said methane gas had been found in water wells in that corner of northern Texas for a number of years before Fort Worth, Texas-based Range began drilling gas wells there, targeting the Barnett Shale formation.

"At least since the late '60s or early '70s there has been gas in a number of [water] wells in that area prior to development of the Barnett Shale," Patterson said.

Patterson's comments reflect the position of Range and an industry-oriented publication, which have contended that the producer should not be held responsible for the contamination of the water wells.

In early December, the EPA issued an "imminent and substantial endangerment" order requiring Range to take immediate steps to protect homeowners living near one of its drilling operations in Weatherford, Texas.

The agency took the action upon finding methane and other hydrocarbon contaminants in the water wells after residents complained about flammable and bubbling drinking water from their taps.

The order triggered a regulatory showdown with the Texas Railroad Commission, which said it had the primary authority to regulate the water well contamination.

The TRC has scheduled a public hearing for January 10 to investigate the incidence of water well contamination and to determine the appropriate action to take.

Patterson -- whose agency works to ensure safe and adequate water supplies in a region comprising Hood, Parker, Wise and Montague counties -- said there is no indication at this time that the methane contamination goes beyond the two affected water wells. "There is nothing to indicate whether the aquifer is contaminated," he said.

In a December 27 letter to Alfredo Armendariz, administrator for EPA Region 6, Range Senior Vice President Mark Whitley wrote that EPA's own experts cast doubt on the firm's alleged responsibility for the contamination.

Referring to a December 15 meeting between Range representatives and EPA officials, Whitley wrote: "Your data and analysis of the gas samples and ours demonstrates that Range's activities are not the cause of the natural gas and hydrocarbons found in the water wells in question."

He added that during the meeting, Range and the EPA staff discussed a water well contamination incident that occurred in 2005, four years before the operator began drilling Barnett Shale wells in the region. In that incident, a water well near the site, and drilled to the same depth as the two wells in question, flared natural gas for several days.

Whitley said Range agrees with the EPA "technical staff's acknowledgement that hydraulic fracturing in the Barnett Shale cannot be the cause of natural gas occurring in the domestic water wells identified by the EPA."

A similar conclusion was reached by a December study conducted by a pro-industry publication, Powell Barnett Shale Newsletter.

Gene Powell, the newsletter's editor and publisher said research -- conducted by him and two Texas certified petroleum engineers and two petroleum geologists -- found that the natural gas in the private water wells was from the shallow Strawn Sand and intertwined Paluxy Sand formations and not the much deeper Barnett Shale formation.

Powell also writes that using water from wells containing even very small amounts of natural gas tends to "pull" the gas "further into the depleting water reservoir adding to eventual natural gas intrusion into other private water wells, in our opinion."

The newsletter called for every water well in the area to be tested for presence of natural gas "and those that show intrusion should be plugged."

Spokesmen for the EPA and the TRC did not return calls for comment.

--Jim Magill, jim_magill@platts.com

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