A possible explanation for the geysers

Officials with Chesapeake Energy Corp. say it is possible that the natural gas geysers that are occuring in Kingfisher County are linked to a well where last week they discovered abnormally high pressures about two miles below the surface.

“We have drilled thousands of wells in Oklahoma and have never had an occurrence like this before,” said Tom Price, Chesapeake’s executive vice president of corporate development. “We cannot rule it out as the cause, but we certainly are not prepared to say that manifestations of gas located as near as one and a half miles away or as far as 12 miles away have come from that well in Kingfisher County.”

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission agreed the connection would be unusual.

The gas tests as mostly methane, the component in most natural gas. Oklahoma officials hope that by pulling natural gas from the well, Chesapeake will eliminate the problem.

Chesapeake said there is no indication the gas traveled beyond the well bore, but the company acknowledged the possibility that its drilling activity could have contributed or caused the natural gas leak.

While it is unusual for oil or natural gas to travel long distances underground, it has happened before. In 1982, for example, oil burst to the surface up to 10 miles away from a well drilled in Caddo County.

If pumping doesn't work, then it's back to square one. There is a chance that the abnormally high pressures that were detected in the new well are being felt all across the area, from some unseen event below.

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