The 10-man drilling crew escaped the Thursday blowout unharmed, said Assistant Fire Chief Frank Navarrette. No other injuries were reported.
Evacuees spent the night in hotels, with friends or at an evacuation center after officials told them to leave the area around the site because of fumes and the potential for an explosion.
The Midland, Texas, crew trying to cap the well was being assisted by a team from Houston-based Chi Operations Inc., which owns the rig, said Carlsbad emergency preparedness manager Liz Baggs.
Chi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
City officials said it might take several days to cap the well.
Mayor Bob Forrest said there would be an investigation and that the city might review its drilling ordinances. The city issued a permit for the rig in January.
"Had they anticipated (the pocket), they would have had the equipment to flare the gas, to prevent what happened out there,'' Eddy County Sheriff Kent Waller said.
Carlsbad Fire Department Lt. Jason Lowe was in the fire station Thursday morning when he heard a roar from the drilling site just behind it.
"It sounded like a jet airplane landing,'' Lowe said. "We went outside and saw a black liquid-type substance spurting straight up into the air.''
Carlsbad is about 30 miles north of the Texas border in southeastern New Mexico.
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