By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
Published: September 7, 2010

TUNKHANNOCK – Four natural gas companies have leased mineral rights to substantial portions of land throughout Wyoming County, and all four have exploratory gas wells under way.

Depending on what those wells produce, the county could be on the brink of a potential natural gas boom.

“It’s beginning. It’s starting,” said Phillip Corey of Carrizo Marcellus LLC.

Carrizo is one of the four Cs: the gas companies most active in Wyoming County. The others are Chesapeake Appalachia LLC; Chief Oil & Gas LLC and Citrus Energy Corp.

The State Department of Environmental Protection’s active well inventory as of Aug. 30 shows wells are in various stages of progress for Carrizo in Washington Township; Chesapeake in Braintrim, Mehoopany, Meshoppen, Northmoreland, Washington and Windham townships; Chief in Forkston, Mehoopany, Monroe and Nicholson townships; and Citrus in Mehoopany and Washington townships.

However, only a few wells have been completed, and in some cases, natural gas production could be months away.

Carrizo: Seeking permits

Corey said Carrizo’s first natural gas well in Wyoming County, in Washington Township, is under way. The drilling rig arrived at the site Aug. 30, he said.

Carrizo also has two drilling sites picked out further south: one on a parcel owned by Barbara Shields in Monroe Township and one on the Sordoni family’s Sterling Farms in Noxen, not far from the Luzerne County border.

Corey didn’t know exactly when operations will commence at those sites, but does anticipate making preparations for drilling before inclement weather sets in, and to be “out drilling some time this winter.”

“We did file for our permits,” he said. “Now we’re waiting on the state to grant the various permits we’re going to need before we can drill.”

Besides permission from DEP, Carrizo will need a highway occupancy permit from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to construct an access road off Route 29 for the Shields site, according to Corey. Carrizo also has to get Wyoming County planning and zoning approval.

Chief: Ready but reviewing

Drilling started on July 7 for Chief Oil & Gas’s first well in Wyoming County, on land owned by the Polovitch family in Nicholson Township. However, it has not yet been hydraulically fractured, Chief Spokeswoman Kristi Gittins said.

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” involves blasting millions of gallons of water deep underground to crack the shale and release the natural gas. Wells must be fracked in order to produce.

Gittins said it could take weeks or even months before the well is fracked. In new areas, Chief typically takes more time after drilling before scheduling the fracking, in order to gather and review information.

“There is no readily available pipeline for Marcellus wells in Wyoming (County) yet either, so even when a well is drilled and fracked and has shown that gas can be produced, it will still be months before any gas gets on a pipeline and off to market and any royalties paid,” she said.

One of the wells permitted and ready to be drilled is on Robert Longmore’s Noxen farm, but it’s too early to determine when work will start, according to Gittins.

“None of them are on the drilling schedule at this time so the earliest would likely be end of this year,” she said.

“But my canned statement is ‘drilling schedules change frequently.’ Bottom line, the wells are permitted and we could move a rig in any time. Moving in a rig to drill is not a process that goes unnoticed, and we are open with our plans and talking to the public about them.”

Chief holds public meetings to introduce the company to the community; it also holds informational meetings with local emergency responders and municipal officials, gives tours of its operations, and has participated with counties in starting gas drilling task force groups, Gittins said.

“Once we know more about our plans in Wyoming (County), we will schedule a community meeting,” she said.

Chesapeake: Preparing

Throughout the summer, Chesapeake has been filing hundreds of leases in the Wyoming County recorder of deeds office.

However, company spokesmen would not comment on future plans for expansion, although they did note that two wells have already been drilled and four more sites are in the works.

DEP records show that drilling started Aug. 27, 2009 on Chesapeake’s Skoronski well in Northmoreland Township, and on March 9 for the company’s Cappucci well in Mehoopany.

“In the coming year, operations in the county are expected to continue,” Brian Grove, Chesapeake’s senior director for corporate development, stated in an e-mail.

Citrus: Squeezing further

Steve Myers, director of Land and Legal Affairs for Citrus, said the company is drilling five wells in the Mehoopany and Washington Township area in partnership with Procter & Gamble, and now is looking to move into Meshoppen. He said Citrus is “just kind of moving out a step away from existing production.”

“We’ll go across the (Susquehanna) river to the west, drill on that side,” Myers said. “We’ll be all over that tri-township area.”

He stressed that expansion will depend upon success.

Looking to Luzerne

Myers confirmed that other natural gas companies, particularly those drilling in the southern municipalities in Wyoming County, are keeping an eye on what happens with Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc.

Encana has started drilling the first of two planned exploratory wells in Luzerne County at a site owned by Edward Buda off Route 118 in Fairmount Township. Site preparation is nearing completion for the second well, on Paul and Amy Salansky’s Zosh Road property in Lake Township.

Geologists, including Penn State professor and Marcellus Shale expert Terry Engelder, say there tends to be less natural gas around anthracite coal-producing areas. Route 118 is generally considered to be the dividing line, below which the natural gas has mostly been “cooked” out of the shale, but above which it is plentiful.

If Encana is successful in drilling so far south, it will encourage other natural gas companies, Myers believes.

But there’s an eastern boundary to watch out for, too: Wayne and Lackawanna counties may not be fruitful, according to Myers.

“There’s a line in there somewhere. As things progress and people drill closer to it, it will have more definition,” he said.

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072

View article here.

Copyright:  The Citizens Voice