Salt Dome Storage Field
Since the evaluation was done with a mobile laboratory, it was decided to carry out cursory surveys around the other three storage wells. Two of these wells exhibited no evidence of hydrocarbon leakage. Around the third of the additional wells was found a contaminant spot of approximately 125 feet in diameter where hydrocarbon concentrations in the soil gas at 3 – 4 feet was 15% by volume. Both the molecular and isotopic composition of these soil gases was identical to the stored product. These observations led the operator to immediately empty the well and repair the leak. (Robert J. Pirkle, Proceedings of the American Gas Association Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 1986)
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We were called to this facility because the operator suspected that one of the four hydrocarbon storage wells in the salt dome was leaking. A grid of soil gas samples were taken from around the suspect storage well from depths of 3 – 4 feet and the hydrocarbon concentration of each sample was determined on-site in Microseeps mobile laboratory. An obvious hydrocarbon soil gas anomaly was observed largely within 10 – 15 feet of the well bore with some smaller but anomalous observations out to 50 feet. Both the molecular and isotopic compositions of the anomalous surface soil gases were identical to the composition of the stored product.
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