By DAVID J. MITCHELL Advocate River parishes bureau Published: Aug 13, 2010 - UPDATED: 4:15 p.m.
PAINCOURTVILLE Oilfield contractors tried but without immediate success this afternoon to set afire a towering plume of oil and natural gas jetting into the sky from a wild well near Paincourtville in Assumption Parish.
After burning flares failed to ignite the oil and gas, crews set barrels of diesel fuel ablaze adjacent to the well, but without getting the big plume alight.
State Police Trooper Bryan Zeringue, spokesman for State Police Troop C, said shortly before 4 p.m. that crews were preparing to fire another round of flares at the well.
Workers began lobbing the first volley of flares, a total of 15, at the geyser of oil, gas and other material coming from the well at about 2:50 p.m.
Authorities had hoped to start the controlled burn about 1 p.m..
State Police said a decision was made to initiate the controlled burn in order to flare off the potentially hazardous emissions the 7,200-foot-deep exploratory well has been emitting since early Wednesday.
Officials said that burning the oil and gas would help make the area around the well safe for contractors preparing to cap the well.
State Police monitoring the emergency have said they expect the process of capping the well to take several days.
The Mantle Oil and Gas LLC well began throwing a high-pressure mixture of crude oil, natural gas, water and sand several hundred feet in the air shortly before 3:30 a.m. Wednesday from its location in a large sugar cane field.
No one was injured, but the blowout forced evacuation of six houses, a business and shutdown of vehicular traffic along two miles of La. 70 between La. 1 and La. 996.
Trooper Zeringue said the highway would still stay closed after the controlled burn began.
Zeringue said that once the well is flared and the well and site are declared safe, evacuation orders in force since Wednesday would be revisited and possibly relaxed.
Zeringue said the controlled burn would not cause any health hazard to the community, but residents may notice some noise and see the flaring oil and gas, as well as black or white smoke.
Anyone with discomfort from the well is asked to call the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at (985) 369-7386 or the parish Sheriffs Office at (985) 369-2912, Zeringue said.
GGP Price at posting:
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