Flares from Marcellus Shale wells attracting plenty of attention
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Flames shoot from a well in Mount Pleasant. Washington County.
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They've been mistaken for everything from forest fires to gas well explosions -- even alien spacecraft.
But fear not, those "giant flames in the sky," as some call them, are all a part of the Marcellus Shale gas well boom here in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Looking like huge Roman candles high atop the horizon of mostly rural landscapes, gas well flares sometimes can be seen from as far as 10 miles away.
The flaming hydrocarbons spewing up a mile or more from the depths of the earth -- and sounding much like a jet engine -- can be frightening the first time someone sees it.
"For some of the bigger ones, we got calls, but once people realized it was a controlled burn, they tapered off," said Jeff Yates, Washington County's director of emergency services, about hundreds of 911 calls that the county has received in the past several years.
The flares are used at the end of the drilling and hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking -- stage, explained Tony Gaudlip, development manager and chemical engineer with Range Resources.
"What you're doing is testing the well," Mr. Gaudlip said. "You just spent a couple million dollars drilling this well, you want to see what you've got."
Flares are used to slowly release pressure in the well before the production stage, Mr. Gaudlip said.
Once a well is drilled, it expels fracking fluid and oil -- which are then stored in tanks -- and natural gas in the form of about 77 percent methane, along with secondary fuels such as propane, butane and ethane.
While a well is being flared -- which typically takes three days -- measurements are taken, along with temperature and other critical data.
When pipelines are nearby, flaring isn't necessary because the gas is pumped directly into the pipeline, Mr. Gaudlip said. The oil is sold, and the water is recycled and reused to frack other wells.
"We don't flare every well anymore," Mr. Gaudlip said. "It's kind of the exception to the rule."
First Published February 2, 2012 12:00 am
