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.

 

[polo1665]

Spiker, the outfit that handled the oil and gas lease on our property was "Petro Evaluation Services" out of Wooster (shouldn't be too far away from you). We are a little over an hour east of your place.

vrex / Egon, Thanks for the information. I'll keep trying to run into the pumper. They seem to keep some strange hours though. I'll probably have to wait for my next weekend off work and monitor the well site around the clock. There is a seperator as you described, it is located next to the oil storage tank. My gas comes directly off the well head though. There is a smaller seperator that I was instructed to check from time to time. I've never found any evidence of fluid though. Certainly not having any problems with burners in the house. I must say that I feel pretty safe with the system.

There is a limit to the free gas we are allowed. Anything over 200,000 cubic feet has to be paid for at the "prevailing wellhead field market price", not sure if this is more or less than normal market price. I would assume it is less. There is a meter at the well, so far after six months we have used 31,600 cubic feet.

Mark V, We certainly have quite a few Marks around here All of the work inside and out was done by qualified plumbers, unfortunately I was not around to speak to the ones that did the outside line. I will most certainly keep you all posted with what I find out.

Thanks again for all the helpful responses
Mark

 

[Egon]

Phone the company so you can get information on the Pumper and arrange to meet him. You may also try and leave a message on the well house door.

There may be some circular round charts in the well house. They are dated and will give you a good idea of when the pumper has to show up to change them.

Find out all you can about the separators and how to drain them manually. Also find out how the sight glass valves operate as they usually have ball checks that can stick and isolate the sight glass if it breaks.

The sight glasses should be blown down and proved on a regular schedule.

Cold weather is usually when problems happen if they do happen.

 

[SPIKER]

Mark:

thanks yes I'm only 10 min west of wooster city limits

I to am a MARK and part of reason I use SPIKER all the time not as meny of them around lol

mark M
aka SPIKER

 

[Jimmyp5]

I had two gas wells on my place in Oklahoma. Both fed my barn and house...

In my view you need to insure you have gas/water separators on the line., in my case I have a switch value so I could use either well. On each line we had two gas/water separators. Monthly draining of the water out of the separators kept them from ever freezing.

Also we had a low pressure cut off on both lines, those did stop flow once or twice when the well head had problems, the gas guy like me calling and telling him we had a problem. The guys did check my stuff now and them just being nice and being a good people.

I loved it., how else could I afford to have a swimming pool heated in the middle of winter in Oklahoma!

 

[polo1665]

Jimmyp5, there is a seperator on the line and a low pressure cut off. The low pressure cut off is what prompted me to seek advice. As Egon said "You usually have problems when the weather is cold" (just when you need it). The low pressure cut off has stopped gas flow twice in the last few days. I never had to call anyone though, I just reset it and it was O.K., and it has run all right for the last two days.

Egon, Calling the place is a good idea. Note on the well house door won't do I'm afraid, no wellhouse. I'll take some pictures of what I have in the next week or so and post them.

Spiker, Good luck with getting a lease signed.

Mark

 

[chh]

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

IMO Do Not Sell your minerals. The people that buy them expect to get their money back easily from leases and royalties. I own most of the ones on my property and if I did ever happen sell the land I would keep the minerals. One of my neighbors sold all his mineral rights several years ago. Right now on his property a well is producing more in royalties every month than he recieved when he sold them. Not a bad return on investment for them.

 

[Jimmyp5]

One person said the guy who services the well head is called the "pumper" whatever he is called, get to him. He is key to good service, from the sound of the problem, the separator at the well head man need service, if water gets in there and it turns cold you will get a low pressure shut off. Like I said before I drained the separators at least monthly. And I did it before any cold snap.

 

[jimcar58]

I recently have been given a feed line from a gas wellhead where one other home and barn are connected. I would like to know what regulator I need to install to properly set up my home for the use of a gas wall heater and a gas cook stove.

 

[jimcar58]

Jimmyp what regulator do I need to install where the gas enters my home? I have a line given to me from a neighbor that has a gas well and he wants me to setup my home for a gas wall heater and a gas cook stove.

 

[forgeblast]

Gas is coming right out of the well? do you need to dry it before it can be used? What gas company is it they may be able to tell you what you need to do.