Shale Gas Blowout Extinguished After Six-Week Blaze in Louisiana

A natural gas blowout that burned for six weeks in rural Louisiana has been extinguished.

The blaze at a drilling site controlled by GEP Haynesville LLC involved four adjacent wells, said Patrick Courreges, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Gas from two of the wells erupted and raged out of control, melting the pipes in two nearby wells and igniting them as well, he said.

Blowout Engineers, a unit of industry consulting firm Sierra Hamilton LLC, carried out the firefighting work and capped the wells, Courreges said. The incident occured near the town of Coushatta, about 300 ...