Friday, May 27, 2011
The Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, North Dakota
by Lauren Donovan, The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.
About 30 oil wells were shut off ahead of the rising water on the Missouri River west of Williston and a few of those wells are now under water.
John Axtman, who heads the Oil and Gas Division's Williston office, said he started alerting well operators Monday morning to prepare for high water and found that several of them were on top of the situation.
The Missouri River was expected to crest somewhere around 27.5 feet late Wednesday, slightly lower than anticipated.
However, the high water put some wells under water, some partially under water and some are now surrounded by water, Axtman said.
He said well operators shut down the wells, removed any chemicals and motors from the site and drained oil from tank batteries, refilling them with fluid so they'd be too heavy to become buoyant.
Axtman said the wells were primarily older wells, but even at a 50-barrel per day, would cost the well owner a fair amount of money in lost production.
Randy Samuelson, a production manager for Brigham Oil and Gas, said his company shut down one well that's now under water and a couple more are a concern.
"I hope the well restarts easily and that we don't have to rebuild the whole location," Samuelson said.
Samuelson said rebuilding a pad and well site will cost upward of $200,000.
Axtman said damage to the electrical systems will be one of the major repair issues at the flooded wells
While some wells aren't flooded, owners shut them down anyway because roads leading to them are under water and they can't get in to haul out produced oil and waste water, Axtman said.
Water has backflowed across a vast low-lying area south and west of Williston, which is near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
Williams County Emergency Manager Mike Hallesy said the revised lowered crest was good news.
"When you're pushing the upper limits, inches seem like miles," he said. "High water pushed all the systems early this week."
He said much of the flooded land behind Williston is either owned by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, as part of the Garrison Dam project, or managed as a wildlife refuge.
Further back in Trenton, farmers were having a difficult time getting any crops planted with rain and now flooding in the lowlands.
"I'm going to say that river is a couple of miles across," Hallesy said.
Copyright (c) 2011, The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.
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