No Injuries Reported In EOG Eagle Ford Rig Explosion
EOG Resources (EOG) , the world’s fifth-largest independent oil and gas company with a market cap of just over $43 billion, said that nobody was hurt after a Wednesday night explosion rocked one of its Eagle Ford shale-drilling wells, resulting in a fire that is still ongoing.
The company is calling the explosion a “well control incident and fire,” that has been contained, though not yet put out.
The affected well is located in the Eagle Ford Shale about 100 miles west of Houston, Texas. The reserves are one of the hot spots for the North American shale boom, and while the cause of the explosion has yet to be determined, the company wasted no time in containing the situation. EOG said it was “assembling well control experts and specialized equipment to safely control the well and contain the fire.”
Reuters reported that one of the companies that would be involved in the response to the incident would by the Houston company Wild Well Control, who specialize in responding to drilling-related explosions and other oil and gas production-related problems.
The exploration firm Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR) is the actual owner of the drilling rig operated by EOG. A representative from the company, who owns the largest share of the world’s land-rigs, said that the severity of the fire has raised doubts about whether or not the afflicted rig could be saved, and predicted more rather than less severe damage as a result.
EOG had dropped about 1 percent near the conclusion of regular trading, to $158 per share, though the company has had a good year, with its stock advancing over 32 percent in 2013. Nabors is down 1.3 percent to $15.50, and has seen shares rise nearly ten percent on the year. Yesterday's explosion comes in the wake of several fires at Royal Dutch Shell's (RDS.A) Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Louisianna.
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