Oil companies donate to fight Oklahoma wildfires

Oil and natural gas companies operating throughout western Oklahoma are dodging raging wildfires and helping crews battle the blazes.

Wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres of western Oklahoma, an area dotted with oil wells and oil-field activity. Despite the widespread fires, however, oil wells and equipment so far appear to have avoided the flames.

"Our inspectors have not reported any incidents involving wildfires," Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said of the area's oil wells and tank batteries.

Wildfires tend to move through an area quickly, and oil wells and tank batteries typically are away from vegetation.

The fires so far have stayed west of the state's booming STACK play, but are in an area of the Arkoma Basin where Denver-based FourPoint Energy is active. FourPoint's wells so far have not been affected, but the fires have created logistical challenges, spokeswoman Jenna Samek said.

"Operations have been more difficult because of increased activity in the area," she said.

While FourPoint's operations so far have avoided fire damage, many residents and businesses in the community have not been as fortunate.

FourPoint is donating $2,000 each to 17 local volunteer fire departments to help battle the fires, Samek said Friday.

"We have field employees who live across western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle region, and our operating footprint pretty much spans that entire area," Samek said. "Given the fact that our employees live in the area, we wanted to make sure the communities know we are there and support them."

Many of FourPoint's field crew members also are volunteer firefighters.

"Fire fighting trucks have been lost, and pumps and hoses are being overused. We wanted to help them replace that equipment," Samek said. "Our contribution is a drop in the bucket to what they ultimately need, but we wanted to be able to spread the resources as much as we could to help as many departments as we can in the affected area."

Marathon Energy, Continental Resources and other oil and natural gas companies also are contributing to the effort. Some companies are helping with the same organizations they worked with when fires burned in the region last year and in previous years.

"Unfortunately, it's deja vu from what we saw last year," said Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association. "For anyone doing business in western Oklahoma, this is unfortunately familiar. The response this year has been just as great as it was in the past. Needs have been identified and addressed quickly."

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