WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) - State regulators say it will take at least a “couple of days” to stop a blowout at an oil well site in northwest North Dakota.
The site is operated by Whiting Petroleum. A spokesman says about 50 barrels of flow back water were leaked. The company was able to divert the fluid to nearby storage tanks. No oil was spilled.
The Bismarck Tribune (https://bit.ly/MTNYpo ) reports Lynn Helms of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources says an equipment failure likely caused the blowout. She says the well located about 40 miles east of the Montana border line had a flow rate of 200 barrels an hour.
Whiting Petroleum’s spokesman says it isn’t a producing well yet. He says the well will resume normal operations by Saturday morning.
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