No Frack Ohio

We took a look at data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) obtained through public record requests along with data obtained from ODNR’s RBDMS database and we found that 693 gas and oil wells in Ohio failed inspections performed by ODNR inspectors last year, resulting in 1,625 distinct violations.

The most frequent citations appear to be for older, non-productive wells that have often been abandoned or unused for many years. Violations for Failure to legibly identify well (347 violations) were most frequent, followed by Nonproduction wells that need to be plugged or placed in temporary inactive status (251 violations). But many more serious violations were also identified including:

Well operation causing pollution and contamination – 131 violations
Other pollution and contamination related – 24
Defective casing, leaking well – 55 violations
No SPCC dike/or failure to keep dike free of water or oil – 53 violations
Well insufficiently equipped to prevent escape of oil and gas – 51 violations
Unlawful venting or flaring of gas – 27 violations
Dike or pit not able to prevent escape of brine or other wastes – 19 violations
Unlawful method of storage or disposal of brine or other wastes – 18 violations
Failure to keep dike or pit free of brine or other wastes – 16 violations

Some of the worst violations included:

A 200′ long leak of potentially toxic brine and oil flowing into a creek that feeds the Little Muskingum River (and eventually the Ohio River)
The scalding of trees from the release of brine (i.e. salty and potentially-toxic wastewater) “apparently caused by the hydraulic fracturing of nearby new well”
“oil bubbling up in the back yard” of residential homes

The company with the most wells in violation was Enervest. According to their website: “EnerVest is the largest oil and gas operator in Ohio, accounting for approximately 25 percent of the state’s production. The company’s next play in Ohio is the Utica Shale.” Below is a list of the companies with 10 or more wells receiving violations in 2011:

ENERVEST OPERATING L – 65 wells
HISTORIC OWNER – 24 wells
BROAD STREET SERV LLC – 16 wells
OGE ENERGY LTD – 16 wells
CHIEFTAIN ENERGY CORP – 15 wells
CUTTER OIL CO – 14 wells
J D DRILLING CO – 14 wells
NORTHWOOD ENERGY CORP – 14 wells
ARMSTRONG ROBERT D – 11 wells
M & R INVESTMENTS OHIO LLC – 11 wells
OXFORD OIL – 11 wells
STONEBRIDGE OPERATING CO – 11 wells
ATLAS NOBLE LLC – 10 wells
L L P OIL & GAS CORP – 10 wells
MALLETT LUKE-DBA MALLET ENERGY – 10 wells

Athens, Holmes and Washington counties had the most wells with violations in the state. Below is a list of all counties with over 10 wells receiving violations during inspections last year.

ATHENS – 53 wells
HOLMES – 51 wells
WASHINGTON – 49 wells
MEIGS – 44 wells
TUSCARAWAS – 42 wells
COSHOCTON – 35 wells
MUSKINGUM – 35 wells
MONROE – 29 wells
LICKING – 28 wells
PERRY – 26 wells
GUERNSEY – 25 wells
NOBLE – 24 wells
HOCKING – 22 wells
VINTON – 21 wells
CUYAHOGA – 18 wells
WAYNE – 18 wells
MORGAN – 17 wells
STARK – 17 wells
HENRY – 16 wells
MEDINA – 15 wells
GEAUGA – 13 wells
LAKE – 12 wells
TRUMBULL – 12 wells
LAWRENCE – 11 wells

[UPDATE] It’s been pointed out that we forgot to include the total number of wells in Ohio. To clarify, ODNR’s website says there are 64,378 active wells in Ohio. SO yes, it’s true a total of 1% of all wells in the state failed an inspection. BUT… it’s also important to note that, based on the same data set we used for our analysis, only 6,785 wells were actually inspected last year meaning only about 10% of the wells in the state were actually inspected. To put it another way, inspections appear to have had a 10% failure rate. We apologize for excluding this information in our original analysis.

http://www.plunderbund.com/2012/01/05/693-of-ohios-gas-and-oil-wells-failed-inspections-in-2011/