A third of wells shut down at site of troubled natural gas facility in California
By Brian Melley
12 September 2017
LOS ANGELES (Associated Press) – The largest gas storage facility in the West halted using a third of the wells pumping methane underground at high pressure just weeks after it resumed operations following a blowout that crippled it for nearly two years.Southern California Gas Co. said Monday it notified state regulators last month that 13 of 39 injection wells at Aliso Canyon were shut down after detecting a pressure buildup.State regulators and the company said there were no risks to public health or safety and no release of gas into the atmosphere. But the revelation raises questions about how such a problem could crop up so soon after SoCalGas upgraded equipment, passed rigorous tests and began operating under stricter rules at the aging facility.The state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources said the real-time pressure readings that were required after the October 2015 blowout had led to a prompt response by SoCalGas that showed new safety requirements worked [cf. The invisible catastrophe: How 97,000 metric tons of methane quietly leaked into the California sky – ‘It just looks like a beautiful sunset’].
