North Dakota collecting reports on ‘shallow gas’

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press


BISMARCK — If you hold a flame to your faucet and the water catches fire, the North Dakota Geological Survey wants to know about it.

State geologists are collecting the reports to help pinpoint areas that may hold shallow natural gas deposits.

"Shallow gas" is found at depths of 5,000 feet or less, and sometimes as close to the surface as 200 feet, said Ed Murphy, the state geologist and director of the Geological Survey.

Normally, natural gas is found at depths of more than 10,000 feet, Murphy said.

"When the price goes up, then everyone starts looking at other potential sources," Murphy said.

In North Dakota, shallow gas currently is being tapped at only two wells in Bowman County in the southwestern part of the state, said Fred Anderson, a state geologist in Bismarck. Murphy believes nearly all of North Dakota’s 53 counties could hold shallow gas deposits.

"We are collecting the information necessary to encourage further exploration activity," Anderson said.

The information would be shared with natural gas producers, he said.

"It could be a big deal for a lot of people," Murphy said. "If they have mineral rights, then they could get mineral royalties from that."

Geologists are asking on their Web site for the tips. They say the information could be in the form of stories from "gas emanating from a well, or gas encountered while digging or drilling a private residential or farm well, or while conducting general excavation."

"It’s like looking for elephants in elephant country," Anderson said. "If someone says they saw one, you ask them where they saw it. We’re following along those lines."

So far, only a handful of tips have come in. One of the more promising came from Lyle and Grace Burchill of rural Hope in east central North Dakota.

The Burchills, who are farmers and former water well drillers, said they were able to ignite water from their farm home faucet some 45 years ago.

The couple said the water, which was not drinkable, but was used for bathing, contained a mysterious fizz.

Lyle Burchill said he decided to test the water with fire.

"He lit a match to it and it went ‘kaboom," Grace Burchill recalled.

"It was like lighting a gas stove," Lyle Burchill said. "It burned with a green flame."

Anderson said he tested the couple’s well last fall and was not able to detect any gas from it, but a test well drilled about 2 miles west of the couple’s home did provide a "positive gas show," from around a similar depth. That indicates gas was found in the Burchill’s well during its initial use, he said.

One unconfirmed tip of shallow gas came from the Kenmare area, but it may just be a rural legend, Murphy said.

"It was that a woman was smoking a cigarette on the john and got blown out the window," Murphy said. "It supposedly happened in the late 1970s or early 1980s."

Anderson said there are historical accounts of shallow natural gas used in Bottineau, LaMoure, Cass and Steele counties. There is evidence that a hotel in Edgeley used the gas for heat and lights in the early 1900s, he said.

Anderson said shallow gas is being produced in Canada and in South Dakota.

"By extension then, one would surmise, we may have that potential. And let’s go out and find what we have," Anderson said.

The gas is found in rock formations deposited about 80 million years ago, when most of North Dakota was covered by an ocean — rocks that are in the shallow subsurface throughout most of the state, he said.

The presence of the Cretaceous-era rocks doesn’t necessarily mean gas is present. Still, Anderson said, "most of eastern North Dakota could be considered, in some respects, a frontier area — it hasn’t been explored."

This was found at The Minot Daily News.