State Regulators Reviewing Deadly Gas Rules After Complaints Near Dover

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has started reviewing its rules on deadly and poisonous gas from oil wells following complaints over incidents around one well near Dover in Kingfisher County.

As E and E reporter Mike Soraghan recently found, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is also investigating. Residents in Dover have growing concerns after a well drilled by Chaparral Energy started releasing the deadly hydrogen sulfide gas. They had planned a meeting Monday night to discuss their concerns.

Hydrogen sulfide can kill instantly but to many high school chemistry students, it’s the gas they created in chemistry class that emitted a rotten-egg smell and would often float throughout their school building.

Matt Skinner, a spokesman at the Corporation Commission told Soraghan the commission was looking at the H2S rules with hopes of making recommendations to the 2018 session of the Oklahoma legislature.

One focus of the review was apparently prompted because of the growing number of wells drilled in the STACK close to larger populations. In the case of the Chaparral Energy well near Dover, a review of records showed the drilling company had installed an H2S alarm system. A complaint had also been made against another drilling company.