Drilling rig accident worst ever in state?

BICKLETON — It could take several weeks to conclude an investigation into a flash fire that injured four workers in what’s being called the state’s worst drilling rig accident in memory.

Two of the four injured workers were reported in critical condition after fire broke out early Friday on a Delta Petroleum exploratory natural gas well being drilled in a remote area about 12 miles southeast of Bickleton.

The 2 a.m. accident occurred as workers were pulling a pipe out of the hole, which is when they’re typically most vulnerable, said state Department of Natural Resources oil and gas supervisor Ron Teissere, who visited the site Friday. “At that point, pressure from the natural gas might get released and cause a flare-up.”

Denver-based Delta Petroleum spokesman Carl Lakey said the fire was “presumably” caused by natural gas and burned itself out fairly quickly.

The exploratory well, the only one of its kind currently being drilled in the state, is the latest in a decades-old effort to discover whether natural gas exists in commercial quantities deep beneath the vast Columbia Plateau. It began operations about six weeks ago.

“When you’re drilling into volatile material, accidents do happen and sometimes they catch you unaware,” Teissere said. “We’re not quite sure why it happened, so that’s why we’re bringing in outside expertise.”

The shaking from the explosion woke up site geologist Stephan Castle, who was sleeping in a mobile home 200 feet or so from the rig. At first, he said, he thought someone had backed a truck into his trailer.

He said he peeked out a window and saw a circle of flames briefly shoot horizontally from the rig, giving the illusion of an inferno. But that stopped within a few seconds and most of the remaining gas flames were extinguished in about a half minute, said Castle, who monitors soil samples for subcontractor King Canyon Buffalo Inc. of Fort Collins, Colo.

Combustible material on the rig — canvases, plastic pipes, lubricants — burned for a few more minutes, Castle said.

To escape, one of the drillers jumped from the rig down a steep slide used to load and unload 30-foot metal casings. He broke his right leg in several places, Castle said.

Another man suffered third-degree burns to his hands, he said.

Castle, a former military medic, said he treated the injured men until emergency medical crews arrived in two helicopters and two ambulances.

The man suffering the broken leg was taken to Kadlec Medical Center in Richland. Three others were eventually taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after being briefly hospitalized in Sunnyside or Richland.

The fire was out before the first of 15 firefighters arrived after traveling more than a dozen miles on a gravel, often washboard, road to reach the rig.

Castle called the accident, including the injuries, relatively minor “as far as oil field accidents.” He said he’s twice seen men die in oil and gas rig explosions.

The injured workers were subcontractors to Delta on the 24-hour drilling operation. Three are employees of DHS Drilling of Casper, Wyo. The fourth works for Air Drilling Associates of Aztec, N.M.

Castle, who predicted the drilling will stop for about four days, said the gas surprised the crews.

“The scary thing is, we had no idea there was anything down there,” he said.

Drilling had reached 2,500 feet when the accident occurred, which is shallower than some of the deep irrigation water wells around the area, and still far from the permitted drilling depth of 15,000 feet, Teissere said.

“We knew the (area) has shallow gas pockets in it, and they were aware of the possibilities, so it was a little surprising that it caused this much trouble,” he said. Normally the rig equipment and drilling techniques ensure that natural gas remains confined underground, so officials were surprised that the flare-up occurred, he said.

By Friday afternoon, a number of personnel had converged on the site, including Delta officials, state Labor and Industries investigators and outside contractors who are safety experts,” Teissere said.

“From a regulatory point of view it’s: ‘How do we go forward so this doesn’t happen again?’” he said.

• Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Leah Beth Ward contributed to this report.

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