Oil/Gas Well Help

[polo1665]

We recently bought a house and land in north east Ohio. The land has an oil well. There is a lease that allows our home to benefit from the natural gas at the well head, and the prior owners took advantage of this lease a few months before we moved in. We are now fortunate enough to have free natural gas to the house. While I am grateful of this, I also am apprehensive. I know nothing of the upkeep of the line to the house from the well head, and it is my responsibility. The prior owner was also new to it and could offer no advice. I've done a quick search on the web but have not been successful. Does anyone out there have any info? I would certainly appreciate it.

Mark

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I would think that your lawyer at the closing would have had this answered before you signed anything.

 

[chh]

This is getting to be very uncommon. It was standard practice at one time, but gas companies feel there is too much liability to the practice now. Generally speaking you are get "wet" gas, it has not been thru a dryer, unless there is one on the well, and it will not have any odor put in it(rotten egg smell). That means that low spots in the line can collect water and freeze, cutting off you gas. It also means that if you have a leak you can not smell it. That said I know people who have used it for years(decades) without any major problems. You are generally responsible for the line from the well to your house if there is a problem and you should have a pressure regulator outside you house on the line. Some people have a meter even just to log the amount used. You can have the line pressure tested if you are unsure about its condition. There is generally someone checking on these types of wells on a regular basis. You should try to catch him and have a chat with him about what he knows about your service and concerns. If he has been working that well for a long time he will probably know quite a bit about it and have recommendations for you.
Good Luck and enjoy the free gas.

 

[polo1665]

Thanks for the helpful reply cch. I'm sorry if I came across as having no knowledge of the system. I did go over it with the prior owner, but it was new to him, and he didn't seem to have all the answers. This practice is still going strong in my part of Ohio. Oil wells are being drilled everywhere and the free gas is part of the lease signed by the oil company with the land owner (along with an eighth of the profit from the oil). The gas coming from the well head is at a very high pressure. This pressure is actually reduced twice before enterring the house. The gas from the well that is not used by the house enters a trunk line run by the gas company. I cannot speak for others but my gas does have an oderant added so I feel safe in that regard.
Your Idea about catching the well tenders at the well is a good one. They come at very odd hours though and I thought I may get some extra info from TBN. There is an awful lot of knowledge on this web site.

thanks again
Mark

 

[Egon]

These systems work fine as long as there are no liquids present in the gas. If liquids are present then other equipment must be added to separate the liquid from the gas as the burners cannot handle liquids. Fires can result.

The problems, if there are any, will usually arrive come cold weather time.

As the well ages there is also more potential to have liquids in the production stream. It's sorta a thing that requires constant surveillance.

 

[MarkV]

Polo welcome to the forum. Wish I had free gas. It sure would make the utility bills easier to handle these days. With the way gas prices are going you may need a security guard at your well soon.

Surely if this is standard practice in your area the county building department would want to inspect installations from the well to the house. Assuming the original installation was done properly and inspected the building inspectors office may be a good source for information. Piping for natural gas in a home is done by plumbers here and they should be familiar with the process if this is a regular happening up your way.

Hope you will post what you find out. We don’t have oil wells here but I am interested how the process and precautions work.

MarkV

 

[vrex]

Mark, I have never seen the Ohio gas-to-house set up, but I am a petroleum geologist and am reasonably familiar with these operations. The guy who comes to service the wellhead is called the Pumper, and he knows near everything about all this equipment. He makes a daily trip to read the pressures and he probably is really friendly because he knows that landowners can be problems. By the way, that is all your oil down there, you just happened to have given someone a contract to produce it for you... and they take 7/8 for that right.

Gas pipelines typically operate at 800 psi, but this is well head gas and sounds like it might be collected to the central facility where it could be compressed before entering the sales line. The fluids coming out of the well bore goe into a seperator somewhere (often a vertically mounted vessel, about 4 feet diameter and 8-10 feet tall) where the gas, oil, and water are, er, seperated. If your gas is "wet", it doesn't matter, that refers to some light petroleum liquids and you just get a better btu value for your gas. Your gas is undoubtedly coming out of the oil (as opposed to a gas cap), and it might be important to note that as oil fields mature, the amount of this type of gas increases rather dramatically.

The pumper is the person with all the answers so make him your best friend. Also, he knows about how much gas is available from the well head.

Read your mineral rights lease. The acreage is held by production (hbp), and typically the lease is void if pumping stops for 181 days (if you push the matter with your lawyer). That is your opportunity to negotiate a new contract. Royalties used to be 1/8 everywhere, but nowadays they often get settled for 1/6 or 1/5. Is there a limit to how much gas you can use? Could be something interesting there...heated olympic sized pool, heated giant greenhouses, etc.

Hope this helps a little...)

Vince

 

[Egon]

If your gas is "wet", it doesn't matter, that refers to some light petroleum liquids and you just get a better BTU value for your gas.

Hydrocarbon wet gas does have more BTU content. It also has more potential for containing water. It also has a Great Potential for burning your house down.

 

[SPIKER]

Also here in ohio (where I'm located too but I don't have the GAS STORAGE WELLS under my place at the moment they stop a little farther south & west of me.) The gas companies use under ground rock as storage tanks and actually pump Nat gas down there to store it for winter use usually pumping DOWN in summer and OUT at peak times. I forget the name for the rock storage are we have near mansfield and loudenville areas. but my place is slightly north of it. I was attempting to get a job at the Pavionia pumping station for columbia gas of ohio recently and received a bit more info on it than I used to have. I suspect that the GAS is there under my place as well as I know OIL is as I have natural oily water springs on my place. at least 3 or 4 places where Spring/standing water will have the OIL sheen on top of the surface. Also lots of wells in the area too.


Is there anyone that KNOWS WHO I could contact to sell/lease rights in exchange for the gas & my 1/6th??? Property had several leases in past none were used and last one expired in 93 or so If I remember my title search...
mark M

 

[Egon]

The storage areas may just be a natural reservoir or they may have hollowed out salt caverns. Although salt caverns are usually used for liquid propane rather than gas.