(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp’s XTO Energy unit said on Wednesday it capped a natural gas well in the Utica shale play in Belmont County in southeast Ohio that started leaking after a blowout on Feb. 15:
* The company could not immediately say how much gas leaked from the well
* The well was not a producing well but was about to be put into production after being drilled and fracked, said Karen Matusic, a spokeswoman for XTO
* Matusic said the company has been taking air samples since the blowout and “never picked up anything that would harm humans or animals”
* Following the well blowout, emergency responders evacuated about 30 homes within one mile of the well. Matusic said residents of all but four homes located within a half mile of the well were able to return home within a few days
* Matusic said those last four homes were kept evacuated to keep the roads clear because the company had to dismantle a crane that was over the damaged well and fell onto another well
* Earthworks, an environmental group, compared the magnitude of the XTO well blowout with some of the biggest methane releases in the Untied States
* Matusic said XTO was still calculating how much gas leaked from the Ohio well, but said the company believes it was much less than the 100 million cubic feet per day estimated in a preliminary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on Feb. 17 - just a couple days after the well blowout
* Matusic said that estimate in the EPA report included natural gas, water brine and condensates
* Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the lead government agency at the XTO well pad fire. Officials at the DNR were not immediately available for comment
* The U.S. EPA said it responded to the fire on Feb. 15 to provide technical assistance and air monitoring at the site. Because there was no apparent release of oil or hazardous substances, the EPA said it demobilized on Feb. 21
Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Leslie Adler