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Lochbuie Boom

It looks like the mystery of a loud boom heard near Lochbuie, Colorado has been solved.

Read on to see how we uncovered the COGCC accident report for this location.

  1. First, we saw an article in the Greeley Tribune that identified Ward Petroleum as the operator, and the location as “near Lochbuie”.
  2. Then, we used the National Oil & Gas Gateway to find all the wells in Weld County that are operated by Ward Petroleum.
  3. Then, using the COGCC GIS Online tools, we used the address search functionality to navigate to Lochbuie, and identified the wells operated by Ward Petroleum.
  4. By double-clicking on each of the locations identified in the map (a total of 4) and clicking on the Docs link, we were able to find the accident report for the well at Facility 450193: Ritchey/26.

The accident report states:

At approximately noon on November 21st, Ward Petroleum confirmed at a newly commissioned oil and gas production site that a malfunction of a production vessel led to an over-pressurization of a new and empty 538 bbl storage tank which resulted in the lid of the tank being compromised. It is estimated this occurred at approximately 9pm on November 20th. The site, known as the Ritchey pad, is located in section 26 of 1N 66W, in Weld County. The well(s) at the site were immediately closed in. There were no injuries, environmental issues, or offsite property damage. There were no hydrocarbon spills or releases. The wells at the site will be closed in until equipment repairs have been made and a more thorough review of the incident has been completed.

Since it’s not too far away, the Erie Protectors may give this site a visit … look for a video soon!

You may download the accident report (PDF) from the COGCC web site.

For local media coverage of the “Lochbuie boom”, see:

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