DEP Fines Cabot Oil & Gas
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced it has fined Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. of Pittsburgh $76,546 for a January well control incident at the company’s Huston well pad in Brooklyn Township, Susquehanna County. “Cabot lost control of the Huston J1 gas well for 27 hours, to which the department responded to promptly to ensure there were no significant environmental impacts,” DEP Director of District Oil and Gas Operations John Ryder said. “In this incident, mostly gas was released, which dissipated quickly to background levels within 100 feet from the well.” The incident began the morning of Jan. 5 when a Cabot subcontractor was replacing equipment on the wellhead. The subcontractor did not follow standard operating procedures for the process by failing to first warm the wellhead prior to conducting any work in the freezing temperature. This resulted in damage to a wing valve. A subsequent analysis of the damaged wing valve indicated that it was in the ...