$5M settlement reached in fatal well explosion
PITTSBURGH – Chevron agreed to pay $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a contract worker killed last year when fire engulfed a Marcellus Shale natural gas well in Greene County.
An Allegheny County judge earlier this month approved the settlement of the lawsuit brought by the family of Ian McKee, who died when a well pad located in Dunkard Township exploded Feb. 11, 2014, and erupted in flames. The blaze raged for several days as specialized firefighting crews from Texas were summoned to extinguish the fire and cap the wells.
McKee’s remains were recovered eight days after the well explosion.
The majority of the money will go into a trust for McKee’s son, who was born after the 27-year-old Morgantown, W.Va., resident died.
The parents of McKee, Denise and Robert McKee of Warren, filed the lawsuit in Allegheny Court in June 2014. Their Pittsburgh-based attorney, John Gismondi, did not return a phone call to the Observer-Reporter seeking comment on the settlement.
The fire killed McKee, a field service technician for Houston-based Cameron International Corp., as he and another worker ran to the wellhead in response to a hissing sound at Chevron Appalachia’s Lanco 7H well pad. State regulators blamed an inexperienced worker at the wellpad near Bobtown for loosening a bolt without proper supervision, likely causing the well to leak and catch fire.
The Department of Environmental Protection criticized Chevron for a lack of oversight on the well pad before the fire, and poor communication with state officials in the hours and days afterward. The department said in the week before the fire, apparently “no fewer than seven persons” served as well site manager and may not have sufficiently communicated among themselves. The well site manager had “virtually no background” in the industry and, because of other duties, had no time to supervise contractors, the report said.
DEP also criticized and cited Chevron for initially barring DEP personnel from the site. The company also failed to provide DEP with “meaningful” updates during regularly scheduled briefings and excluded DEP from discussions between Chevron and Wild Well Control, the company brought in by Chevron to control the fire, the report said.
The DEP also cited Chevron for initially barring DEP personnel from the site.
San Ramon, Calif.,-based Chevron said the settlement “enables all parties to move forward.”
“Protecting people and the environment is a core value for Chevron, and we are determined to prevent an incident like this from happening again,” the company said.