Saturday, March 12, 2022 - Thank you for your patience while we worked with the City and County of Broomfield (CCOB) Oil and Gas Inspector, North Metro Fire (NMFD), and site operator, EXO/Civitas, to get a better understanding of what happened at the oil and gas Interchange A well pad near 156th and Huron this afternoon.
NMFD said that at 4:45 p.m, fire crews were dispatched to the Interchange A Pad after reports came in of black smoke in the area. NMFD said they dispatched one engine, and as a precaution, the roads immediately adjacent to the Interchange A Pad were closed.
NMFD field crews reported “a small fire”, and indicated “…that no structures were threatened and no other hazards were present…”. After review and inspection, NMFD said no additional units were needed.
All drilling operations at the Interchange Pad A were and remain shut down, according to EXO/Civitas officials, who said they expect the drilling operations to be shut down until sometime tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, March 13.
As promised in January, EXO/Civitas is to provide advanced notification to CCOB and NMFD prior to restarting a facility resulting from any emergency shut down requiring reparative action. CCOB plans to be on-site tomorrow, or when the restart process occurs.
As noted above, City and County of Broomfield staff, including an Oil and Gas Inspector who arrived on the scene immediately after notification, has been in constant contact with EXO/Civitas and NMFD.
EXO/Civitas said they will be conducting and sharing a root cause report and analysis, which is designed to be a thorough after-action document, to be completed during the next 7-10 days.
City and County of Broomfield staff have requested a hold on operations until the root cause report is completed, however, EXO/Civitas said that given that there was no structural damage to the equipment, they plan on resuming operations tomorrow, Sunday, March 13.
The City and County of Broomfield’s Attorney’s Office is also reviewing the operator’s agreement application related to this event.
More information will be shared as it becomes available.