The Anadarko Petroleum Corporation oil well that blew out of control northeast of Denver near Hudson, forcing closure of Weld County roads for two days, sprayed at least 28,000 gallons of oil, gas and drilling waste water onto surrounding land before fluids were re-directed into tanks, state officials said Wednesday.
A mist from the blowout hit an area 2,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide, state natural resources spokesman Todd Hartman said in response to Denver Post queries.
Anadarko lost control of the well — about 25 miles south of Greeley — around 2:40 p.m. Friday when a crew was taking final steps toward producing from the well, Hartman said.
Fluids gushed from the well until 4:45 p.m. Saturday, when workers directed the flow into temporary tanks, Hartman said. By 9:30 a.m. Sunday, the oil, gas and water was being directed into permanent production equipment, he said.
The well has not been capped. Fluids on Wednesday were still flowing into the production equipment.
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staffers were assessing impacts.
“We expect the company to file updated spill reports with further environmental sampling and analysis with the agency by early next week, in compliance with our process and rules,” Hartman said. “COGCC personnel were on site at various times throughout the weekend and continue to evaluate the environmental impacts and next steps.”
Anadarko spokeswoman Robin Olsen said Wednesday: “We put the valve in place Saturday, therefore containing the flow to the tanks on site or our production facilities.” She also said Anadarko crews had “contained the flow to tanks” on Saturday and “restored the the flow to the production tank” on Sunday.
“It will take some time to finalize volume estimates, which we will report to the COGCC,” she said.
Oil and gas companies operating in Colorado reported 615 spills in 2015, about 15 percent of them affecting groundwater. The total for 2016 wasn’t immediately available.
On Friday, a caller notified county authorities that oil was gushing from a rig and spilling onto roads. A home was evacuated.
Weld County and Hudson emergency crews closed two county roads Friday and re-opened them on Sunday afternoon. Absorbent booms were rolled out in an effort to protect surface water.
