The Associated Press
COALFIELD, Tenn. — An explosion and fire at an oil well Friday morning sent smoke over eastern Tennessee, a rural area dotted with small oil and gas wells.
Don Laughlin, vice president for the well’s owner, Atlas America Inc., said about five workers would have been at the site and he wasn’t aware of any injuries. The cause of the explosion, around 9 a.m., hadn’t been determined, he said.
The well is in the Big Mountain area, about 30 miles west of Knoxville. It is mostly rural without many homes, Laughlin said.
Bill Goodwin, director and past president of the Tennessee Oil and Gas Association, said Atlas America has been a good operator and has drilled a lot of wells in the area, an oil-bearing formation known as the Big Sunnybrook.
“It used to be, you’d have to have a major strike (to make recovery profitable),” Goodwin said. “With today’s prices, that’s all changed.”
Morgan County sheriff’s dispatcher Matthew Brown also said he was unaware of any injuries. Firefighters from surrounding departments, a county rescue squad and ambulances were sent to the well site.