Posts Tagged ‘natural gas reserves’

Pittsburgh, Pa.– Today, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) leadership and Gov. Tom Ridge, an MSC strategic advisor, formally unveiled a sweeping set of principles by which the industry will live by “each and every day” and “embrace.” These principles were first rolled out last night at the MSC’s annual members meeting in Pittsburgh.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity with the Marcellus Shale – the second largest natural gas field in the entire world. Of course though, we need to be smart – and responsible – at every step of the way as this tremendous opportunity is realized. And we are, and will continue to be,” said Gov. Tom Ridge. “We will protect our environment while creating tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs. We will continue to work to strengthen local communities and see to their needs while we work to create sustainable, long-term economic and energy security benefits for every Pennsylvanian. We will focus on developing new demand for natural gas while we improve our efforts to conserve energy. And our guiding principles reinforce this commitment.”

“The responsible development of the Marcellus Shale formation’s abundant, job-creating and clean-burning natural gas reserves represents a historic opportunity to strengthen the region’s economy and workforce, and holds the promise to dramatically bolster the nation’s energy security and put America on a path toward a cleaner energy economy,” said Kathryn Klaber, MSC president and executive direction. “The MSC’s ‘Commitment to the Community’ underscores the industry’s steadfastness to ensuring that this generational opportunity ‘is done right,’ so that the nearly 12 million Pennsylvanians, and beyond, realize its overwhelmingly benefits.”

“As a coalition it’s our responsibility to develop this resource the right way. Our core values include the safety of our employees, our landowners and the communities where we work, environmental stewardship, transparency, and a commitment to best practices. Most importantly, while this is complex technology, we need to keep things simple – we must, and are committed to doing things right,” said Ray N. Walker, Jr., senior vice president of Range Resources and chairman of the MSC. “Our ‘Commitment to the Community’ will help make certain that we will deliver on what is looking more like maybe the greatest economic opportunity this Commonwealth has seen in generations. We will continue to strive to set the standard for the rest of the world and ensure that not only will we create jobs, economic opportunities, and cleaner, cheaper energy, but the communities where we work will be far better off because of us. We have a great opportunity and with that comes an even greater responsibility.”

The MSC’s “Commitment to the Community” Guiding Principles are as follows and are available on-line HERE:

We, the members of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, embrace and operate by the following guiding principles:

• We provide the safest possible workplace for our employees, with our contractors, and in the communities in which we operate;
• We implement state-of-the-art environmental protection across our operations;
• We continuously improve our practices and seek transparency in our operations;
• We strive to attract and retain a talented and engaged local workforce;
• We are committed to being responsible members of the communities in which we work;
• We encourage spirited public dialogue and fact-based education about responsible shale gas development; and
• We conduct our business in a manner that will provide sustainable and broad-based economic and energy-security benefits for all.

We recognize that to succeed in business, we not only embrace these principles, we live by them each and every day. This will be our legacy.

In the Sept. 22 editorial “Shale Worries: Loss of Property Rights Could Be the Next Threat,” the Post-Gazette mischaracterizes the concept of fair pooling, a policy that states have used wisely for generations to reduce above-ground surface activities, while maximizing responsible shale gas production and its host of benefits.

Pooling — which is on the books in every major energy-producing state for horizontal drilling, except Pennsylvania — ensures that mineral owners are compensated for the production of their natural gas.

Your readers, and your editorial writers, should understand that new technologies allow natural gas reserves to be reached thousands of feet below ground, and thousands of feet horizontally from a drilling pad. Unfortunately, under current law, a single landowner could deny the rights of a vast majority of landowners from producing their natural gas reserves. How fair is that?

In June 2009, the Post-Gazette editorialized in favor of a severance tax on shale gas production because “most states, including West Virginia, already” have such a tax, adding that “it is only fair that Pennsylvania share in the wealth.” By that logic, doesn’t Pennsylvania need a common-sense pooling statute, too, since other states (including West Virginia) have one?

The paper is right to characterize Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry as a source of “promising new jobs and income”; in fact, the responsible development of the state’s shale gas resources has created more than 44,000 jobs so far in the commonwealth, with many more in the coming months and years. A competitive tax structure, along with common-sense laws such as fair pooling, will only help build on this tremendous and historic opportunity.

DAVID CALLAHAN

Vice President

Marcellus Shale Coalition

– Link to original Letter to the Editor in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10270/1090577-110.stm

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

The economic benefits associated with the responsible and environmentally sound development of the Marcellus Shale’s abundant, clean-burning natural gas reserves are overwhelming. Tens of thousands of good-paying jobs are being created across the Commonweal of Pennsylvania, where Marcellus development has been underway for several years. Hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues are being generated to local and state government. And Pennsylvania consumers, who continue to struggle with nearly double-digit unemployment rates, are seeing the benefits of shale gas development in the form of lower energy costs.

However, the story of the Marcellus Shale in New York State is a very different one. You see, in terms of geology, the Marcellus Shale formation is not considerably different in New York than it is in Pennsylvania. The technologies used to safely and effectively reach thesejob-creating resources are the same, too. But environmental regulators there have kept this production off-limits, denying the creation of thousands of jobs and countless other economic benefits to the region, despite the fact that the nation’s first natural gas well was completed in Fredonia, NY in 1821. At the same time, some elected state leaders are also working to implement an even more far-reaching moratorium on shale gas development.

Recognizing how critical this development is for Upstate New York’s struggling economy, and for our nation’s energy security, Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) president Kathryn Klaber joined a broad group of organizations this week in a letter to the State Assembly urging their support to move forward with responsible shale gas development: Here are key highlights from that letter:

We need your support for this compelling economic development opportunity, one that could benefit the State and localities significantly for years to come. We should embrace our State’s ability to bring New York-produced gas to New York customers, and by so doing create new opportunity and prosperity in our own State.

Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel known to man – is a solution to reducing our nation’s carbon footprint, and it will greatly improve New York’s and America’s energy independence. … And natural gas is abundant; the Marcellus Shale alone could supply natural gas to the entire United States for 20 years or more.

Based on economic projections in Pennsylvania, where the Marcellus is now being explored, Marcellus Shale development in New York will generate more than $1.4 billion in annual economic impact, based on 300 wells drilled – including more than $100 million in lease payments to landowners, $32 million in state tax revenue and tens of thousands of new jobs over time. In Broome County, a recent study that showed that 2,000 wells would annually generate more than $7.4 billion in economic activity, and nearly $400 million in wages, salaries and benefits. Also, more than $600 million in property tax income and $22 million and $20 million in state and local taxes would be generated. All of this – in just one county.

The folks in New York, especially those along the Southern Tier where Marcellus development would occur, are doing their part to educate, engage and inform the public, and key stakeholders, about the overwhelmingly positive benefits associated with shale gas production and how safe the process actually is. Last night, a group of elected officials, academics, landowners, and energy and labor representatives met in Binghamton to discuss these benefits, and to dispel the myths about the production of shale gas. The Ithaca Journal reports this today under the headline “Meeting touts benefits of tapping into Marcellus Shale”:

According to Syracuse University Earth Sciences professor Don Siegel, these concerns are more myth than reality. “This is the first environmental issue that I’ve thrown my hat into the ring on,” he said. “As a hydrogeologist, I really am almost offended by some of the opposition that’s trying to paint a picture of what groundwater resources are like that is completely wrong.”

“New investments will be made in a region where multimillion — and even multibillion — dollar investments have not been seen to this level in years,” said Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala,” and we can do all this while protecting the environment.”

“Our campus was one of the fastest-growing campuses in the United States, and virtually all of our graduates were going out into very good-paying energy industry jobs,” Drumm said. “The energy industry creates great jobs — lots of jobs — and we were heavily involved in our colleges in training for those jobs.”

Labor unions are also speaking out for responsible shale gas development in New York on behalf of their members. This from a WICZ-TV report:

Local union representatives were on hand as well, supporting the notion that jobs and money are on the coat tails of hydro-fracking.

Alex Barillo of Laborers Local 785 says he’s seen the benefits of drilling south of the border in Pennsylvania, and on the Millenium Pipeline where he says workers have seen a gross income of approximately 35 million dollars.

“That’s $35 million in gross wages that went to local workers right here so that they could have health insurance, they can have retirement, and they could pay their mortgages and so that they can do the things they do every day in their communities,” Barillo said.

We encourage you, your employees, colleagues, businesses associates, friends and family to visit Marcelluscoalition.org/get-involved, and join this fight for a more prosperous economy that leverages these resources into permanent, family-supporting jobs and stable supplies of domestic energy. Becoming a “Friend of Marcellus” will help ensure that you are informed and educated about the opportunities and critical issues surrounding this development, especially as it relates to moving forward with Marcellus development in New York.

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

Nearly $2 million will be allocated for a look at environmental results.

STEVE GELSI MarketWatch

NEW YORK — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will conduct a massive study to investigate any potential adverse impact of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, as the energy industry moves to boost domestic natural gas supplies.

The effort comes as part of a move by government officials and academics to grapple with an expected increase in the decades-old practice of extracting natural gas by injecting water and fracturing rock, a practice known as fracking.

In Northeastern Pennsylvania, drilling is proceeding in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of bedrock containing natural gas.

“There are concerns that hydraulic fracturing may impact ground water and surface water quality in ways that threaten human health and the environment,” the EPA said Thursday.

The agency said it’s reallocating $1.9 million to help pay for a “comprehensive, peer-reviewed” study. Regina Hopper, president of industry group America’s Natural Gas Alliance, said the EPA study will help affirm the safety of fracking.

“Hydraulic fracturing has been refined and improved over the past 60 years and has been used safely on more than one million U.S. wells,” Hopper said in a prepared statement. While hydraulic fracturing usually takes place far underground, well below aquifers for domestic water supplies, it also produces wastewater which must be treated on site or trucked off for disposal.

Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into the potential impact and said it would like to see more information on the chemicals used in fracturing liquid.

“Hydraulic fracturing could help us unlock vast domestic natural gas reserves once thought unattainable, strengthening America’s energy independence and reducing carbon emissions,” said Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “As we use this technology in more parts of the country on a much larger scale, we must ensure that we are not creating new environmental and public health problems.”

Copyright: Times Leader

School districts that sign a lease will receive money per acre, royalty checks on a regular basis.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

There are school superintendents who would drool over the windfall Bill Bush received around January. But Bush, the superintendent at Elk Lake School District, is looking for an even bigger payday.

The district essentially made $127,500 for nothing when it signed a gas lease earlier this year for its 170 acres in Susquehanna County. The district received $750 per acre and royalties of 12.5 percent.

With lease offers hovering around $2,500 per acre in some areas, the deal doesn’t seem as equitable as it once did.

“We were excited at the time, but not now,” Bush said. “I think anybody who signed a lease prior to today probably wishes they had waited.”

Still, the district jumped on the offer, he said, because the company assured it would drill a well on district property, guaranteeing the district a handsome royalty check on a regular basis.

With a furor building over the potential of the natural gas reserves locked in a rock layer that stretches from New York to Virginia, the decision is one that many school districts in the area might have to soon consider. Bush said he believes Elk Lake is the first district to sign, but others aren’t far behind.

Tunkhannock Area School District recently agreed to join a group of Wyoming County landowners who are negotiating a gas lease. Dallas School District is also discussing lease options.Bush said Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. is planning to have a well online by the 2009-2010 school year. It’s unclear how much the district stands to gain from royalties, but surrounding areas “indicate strong reserves,” Bush said. “If we’re consistent with what the project is locally, it would certainly be beneficial to the district,” he said.

So far, Elk Lake is attempting to ignore its financial good fortune, Bush said. The money it already received went to the general fund and disappeared in the district’s almost $17 million annual budget. Instead of counting down the days until royalties start rolling in, people in the district are looking at them as an unexpected bonus if they come.

“I think everybody’s kind of reserving judgment to see how it comes out,” Bush said. “I think they’ve remained grounded.”

Bush has modest plans for the funds, such as building and grounds maintenance and upgrading technology.

Beyond the royalties it would receive from drilling, the district retained the rights to 200,000 cubic feet of gas each year, which it could use or sell at market price. At prices calculated by the federal Energy Information Administration, the district would make about $1,500 from its yearly allotment. The district is considering switching from its oil-fired heating system to a natural gas one, Bush said.

The district also reserved other land rights in about two dozen addendums to the lease.

“Environmental concerns were first and foremost,” Bush said, but safety and other issues were included.

Beyond the royalties, the district retained the rights to 200,000 cubic feet of gas each year, which it could use or sell at market price.

Copyright: Times Leader