The Weld County Coroner’s Office on Friday identified the man killed Thursday morning in an accident at an oil well site near Mead.
Matthew Smith, 36, of Brighton, was killed when a frozen, high-pressure water line ruptured, the office said. Two others were seriously injured in the incident.
The workers were trying to thaw the line when the accident occurred, officials said.
The Anadarko Petroleum Corp. well was being hydraulically fractured, or fracked, by the Halliburton Co., and the workers were Halliburton employees.
Anadarko said it was suspending all fracking operations in the area pending a review of the accident.
The area has been the scene of drilling since at least 1979, but this year Anadarko has sunk at least nine deep horizontal wells, according to state records.
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Each of those wells has to be fracked by pumping a mixture of water, sand and trace chemicals into the well at high pressure to crack rock and release oil.
Thomas Sedlmayr, 48, was flown to Denver Health, and Grant Casey, 28, was taken by ambulance to the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland.
“This is a very difficult time for all of us at Halliburton, and we are working with local authorities as they look into the details of this incident,” Halliburton said in a statement.
“Out of respect for the families’ privacy, we are not releasing any additional information at this time,” Houston-based Halliburton said.
Weld County Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating.
The incident occurred at 9:30 a.m. at the site off of Weld County Road 9½ just north of Colorado 66.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
Staff writer Mark Jaffe contributed to this report.
