NEVER WASTE A CRISIS: Aliso Canyon Blowout and Recovery
Alan J. Walker, Energy & Geoscience Institute, University of Utah
On October 23, 2015, the largest methane leak from a natural gas storage facility in US history was discovered by Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas) at the SS-25 well in its Aliso Canyon Storage Facility near Los Angeles. The blowout continued for 111 days and the well was permanently plugged and abandoned after emitting approximately 5 BCf of natural gas and extracting the failed casing to approximately 890 feet subsurface. The failure was the topic of lengthy reports by US DOE and DOT and Root Cause Analyses by Blade Energy and California state agencies.
Alan Walker was in his first week as a Supervising Petroleum Engineer of the California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) when the leak was discovered and was selected to be DOGGR’s emergency response technical lead. He provided regulatory oversight for seven kill attempts, relief well drilling, the Control-Cement-Confirm operation, requirements to return the facility to service, and developing storage operations regulations.
Alan will provide a frank discussion of the blowout and the five-year effort to improve integrity of underground storage. This talk has applicability for repurposing and retrofitting projects globally. Alan will motivate the audience to develop a safety culture including Management of Change, Root Cause Analysis, and to “Never Waste a Crisis.”
Biography:
Alan Walker is an Engineering Advisor at the Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI), University of Utah. He counsels staff supporting geothermal, hydrocarbon, and carbon research. Alan’s career spans forty years of E&P engineering, regulatory affairs, and natural gas supply and storage throughout western North America.
Alan served nine years in the US Army and is a retired Army Reserve Special Forces colonel with over thirty years’ service. He served three combat tours in Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Iraq. Alan has a B.S. in military engineering from West Point, an MBA from Rensselaer, and an M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Utah.