Anyone have a gas well on their property?

[jakdeere]

My wife and I bought some property last year that has a shallow gas well on it. Long story short- Spent lots days filling out paper work to tap into it, lots of money buying the proper equipment, ran 700' of pipe from well to the house, paid a plumber to hook it all up to our new home we built there. The house is not complete yet but, it has the furnace installed and it runs about 10 to 12 hours before there is not enough pressure to the regulator at the house and trips the regulator. Overnight the pressure builds back up and the next day I reset the regulator and same thing happens. I had the gas company out to look at it, the plumber that hooked it up, and they say that the well is just not producing enough and that they have never seen this happen before. Has anyone ever had this happen or have any experience with this. I was wondering if a holding tank of some sorts with check valve might help? Just FYI, everything has been double checked for leaks, pressure tested, and regulators are working as they should. When this was first hooked up it did run for several days before it started acting up. I asked the gas company if there is anything I do and was told no. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[sailfast]

Any insulation in the building yet?

12 hours constant running?

Frack the well?

 

[300UGUY]

I know of a couple of guys who had that happen locally. The well just may not produce enough. One guy here had a well for 30+ years. It ran out, he had his place froze up, he just couldn't believe that the well had gone bad. I have neighbors that have what is called drift gas in their water wells. They can light the kitchen sink up for a few seconds, but don't get enough to heat anything, or to be dangerous.

 

[SPIKER]

Running the heat constant will pull out a great deal of gas and is pretty much wasting a lot of that gas if you are not truly in need of the heat in a UN-completed home. To do so to keep drywall going in is normal but heat prior to that point is normally not done, (I did drywall hanging in earlier years.)

Only way to cure the problem is to FRACK the well which opens up[ small fishers in the bedrock/shale to let the gas escape into the well bore. There could be some water also infiltrating the well and causing the lower available space in the well bore. Call around to fins some well service companies and see what kind of rates for a well service would run in your area. (It will not be cheap though so consider this when running the gas out to heat the unfinished home.)

Mark

 

[jakdeere]

The house is insulated and the drywall is hung. My builder will not start the finishers until we have a reliable heat source. Which I understand, I don't want cracks in all my drywall seams. Fracking the well is not an option due to the cost.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Very few shallow gas wells can reliably provide a constant flow of gas. For one example, sometimes they load up with water that restricts the gas flow. Propane backup system is the only way to make it reliable.

Who owns the well?

 

[Fossil Farm]

We have 3 wells. They are around 3800 feet in depth. They were drilled around 1982. They still hold around 100 psi. Down from 150 a few years ago. Had a big john and a little john reducer on the well used for the house, but took off the big john because it kept freezing up in the winter. Had to box it and keep a light bulb on to reduce freezing. Your well should have a pressure gauge on it or the well tender should know the pressure of the well. If the well goes into a separator, there should be a recorder giving line pressure of the gathering line and line pressure when it "blows." Those would help give you some idea of what is going on. There is always back pressure in the gathering line to help get more gas and oil flow when it blows, at least on a rabbit well (no jack pump). If it is a jack pump well, and still has oil, the oil can block the gas from coming through it. The well may need to be pumped more often to get rid of the oil and allow the gas to move up the pipe. Again, the well tender should have a better handle on this than the company who owns the well. If the back pressure shows highs and lows, then there is a leak in the gathering line. If those show decent pressure (over 20 psi I suppose) the well may need to be swabbed to clean out the dried oil (called waxes or some other name I can't think of right now). If the well pressure is low and it is an old well, then you probably will not be able to use it as a reliable heat source. The color of the flame will also tell you if you have a significant amount of sulfur or other contaminates in the gas. If it is not a good deep blue, then you will have troubles keeping your furnace clean, not get good BTU's and another reason to consider another heat source. If you are having problems now, it usually will not get better. Good luck.

 

[foreman Etexas]

I actually work for gas company and check gas wells. As stated before some wells have there issues weekly loading etc.,I'm guessing it is a free flowing well 24hrs? Several of ours they shut in at certains pressures to allow for build up to brings fluids to surface. I don't know where you are tied into well or if its tied into the companys pipe-line but I would think it is and would think could tie into down stream side of meter run on pipe-line side past the check should have field pressure from all the wells going into it. But not knowing everything hard to really say.

 

[jakdeere]

I was told by the gas well tender that the well has been "shut in for months and that there is probably water on top of the gas". Which can be helped some with something called a "rabbit" but there is not enough pressure in the well to push the rabbit up?

 

[Fossil Farm]

The company that owns the well should have know it was shutdown when you filled out the paperwork to tap into it. You may want to talk to them to see if they will pay to swab the well and remove the water from the internal well piping. Many wells get shutdown over the winter around here. Too hard to get to some of them except walking. You are probably looking at another heat source for your house such as propane, geothermal, fuel oil, etc. Don't think I would want to rely on that well if it has that much of a pressure problem during the winter. Hopefully you can figure out something.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Probaly talking about running a plunger in well but as said swabbing it back would be the best. Also if doesn't have a packer on backside they could run stainless line from casing to tubing shut well in and let the backside pressure push fluid back into zone (if casing has more pressure) then kick it on next day unload to prduction tank. As said before just matter how much time the pumper wonts to spend with well.

 

[Fossil Farm]

Listen to member "foreman Etexas ." A good well tender knows so much more about the wells and how good or bad they really are than the company. We've been lucky and have had good well tenders over the years. I help them out any chance I get. Have some real oily clothes from it, but well worth it.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Just a thought. Start with the premise that well operators generally hate to have a domestic tap into their systems. Could it be that the well operator consented to your tap knowing you were going to spend a lot of money and not get a reliable supply of gas? The benefit to the operator is that he has made an example out of your situation to discourage all the neighbors from doing the same.

 

[polo1665]

The first winter we had our gas hooked up we had the same problem. Only happened in cold weather and has not happened since (4 years now) I'd say it happened around 7 or 8 times that first winter. Fairly annoying having to reset the regulator and I was worried that it would continue.
Never did figure out the reason behind it, but since it stopped after that first winter I guess I just attributed it to the new installation (maybe some moisture or condensation in the lines). I agree that you should check your pressure at the source, we are at about 100lbs here and have seperator before the run to the house.

I really don't know that the well operators "hate " having a dwelling supplied from the well head, but I do know that they are very concerned about liability and have always made it very clear through written correspondence.

 

[foreman Etexas]

The first winter we had our gas hooked up we had the same problem. Only happened in cold weather and has not happened since (4 years now) I'd say it happened around 7 or 8 times that first winter. Fairly annoying having to reset the regulator and I was worried that it would continue.
Never did figure out the reason behind it, but since it stopped after that first winter I guess I just attributed it to the new installation (maybe some moisture or condensation in the lines). I agree that you should check your pressure at the source, we are at about 100lbs here and have seperator before the run to the house.

I really don't know that the well operators "hate " having a dwelling supplied from the well head, but I do know that they are very concerned about liability and have always made it very clear through written correspondence.[/QUOTE

Maybe its not a hate but when the operator knows now,someone is depending on it to heat there house he has more responsiblity to get it back going ASAP. I run 76wells a day and some lower producers get put aside for the better ones,its just gotta be that way having so many to over look,and its not just riding around in pickup we do almost everything,unlike some. I couldn't get to all them if just driving and not doing any work to them,luckly some don't need much attention. Just an example they may only checked it twice a week now would need to check it daily. We also have two wells on farm,different company from what I work and I never see them there,I find stuff when out feeding cows have to call pumper and tell him he might wonna come check this well. Just like every business you have some good ones and some that do enough just to get a check. A seperator will get your water out but if you have wet gas need a dehy to get your dew point% down.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Me and the other pumper run 156wells no 2 are the same... Only one I would trust to heat house

 

[polo1665]

Me and the other pumper run 156wells no 2 are the same... Only one I would trust to heat house

Don't get me wrong, if our gas went out I would be concerned, and would hope that the well operating company responded sooner rather than later. However I sure don't have any false hopes, and realize that if it were to happen I might be without for a while. Every year we get a letter reminding us that "things" can happen and that we should have a backup source to cover in case of an outage.
Our gas has been run to the house since 2007 and the only trouble we had was the first winter. Keeping our fingers crossed if it does fail it will be in the summer:laughing:

 

[jakdeere]

Thank you everyone for your replies. We decided to just cut our losses and we are getting a propane tank delivered next week.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Thank you everyone for your replies. We decided to just cut our losses and we are getting a propane tank delivered next week.

Hate that it didn't work out but now you won't have that headache to deal with losing gas when you really need it. Maybe they will work on it in the future and make it better,then you can use it and always have backup propane...

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I wouldn't completely cut your loses. The well might be a viable supplement to your base heat supply. There is also no incentive in the gas market now to look after a "negative-income well" If it produces a mcf a day and lots of water. What incentive does the company have to put a ton of money into a well that might make a few hundred dollars a month? I would almost certainly bet that the well is loaded up with water and has not been looked after very well due to the deep gas wells being a top priority and a much bigger money maker. The company who owns the well has no financial interest to make sure you house gets gas from that well.

You may find out that you can buy the well and have it worked over for a reasonable chunk of change and you could have a long producing well. That is going to require some knowledge however. Just some thoughts. I wouldn't think trying to refracturing that well would make any sense at all. That is way to expensive to be justified by a home owner.