> Remember seeing a video once where someone could light the water coming out of their kitchen sink facet on fire. Note that this happens more often completely

> Remember seeing a video once where someone could light the water coming out of their kitchen sink facet on fire. Note that this happens more often completely naturally than as a result of any drilling operations. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_seep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_seep for more info. Oil and gas in economically useful amounts is generally deeper underground below https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprock that prevents it from flowing upward. If that caprock was not there, then the oil would not have accumulated in that location in the first place. Oil wells generally have multiple layers of steel casing and cement between the wellbore and the shallow water table at the time. This is necessary to protect the integrity of the wellbore throughout the drilling process and to ensure that any produced oil goes to the surface collector, where it can be used, instead of leaking all over the place. It is also mandated by regulations in most jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the same natural processes that cause oil and gas to be produced and migrate upwards happen in many locations. In some, there is caprock deep underground that causes them to accumulate in volumes that make sense to drill wells into. In other locations, they may naturally flow all the way to the surface, or flow into shallower underground water tables and end up in residential water supplies.