Posts Tagged ‘natural gas’

Encana Gas and Oil spokeswoman says company would be required by the state to correct problems.

By Jen Marckinijmarckini@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

LEHMAN TWP. – Stefanie Spezzia and her husband, Howard, live just outside of a one-mile radius of an exploratory drilling well site in the Back Mountain.

The Spezzias built their Shady Lane home nearly four years ago, but now they worry about the possibility of water contamination due to drilling into the Marcellus Shale for natural gas. It was one of many concerns talked about at a Tuesday evening meeting for neighbors within the proposed “Salansky” gas well site area, as it is called by the company.

“We don’t have the money to put a new well up,” said Stefanie Spezzia. “If the water is contaminated and they can’t fix it, we have nowhere to go.”

EnCana Oil and Gas Inc., which operates from its headquarters in Denver, Colo., has about 8,700 gas wells across the United States. This is the first time the gas company is drilling into the Marcellus, according to Wendy Wiedenbeck, spokeswoman for the eight-year-old natural gas company.

“How safe are we from you polluting our water on your first endeavor?” asked one of the estimated 130 in attendance.

EnCana is attempting to establish a baseline for water quality and quantity conditions by requesting property owners participate in a water sampling assessment, which will be collected by Rettew Associates, a third-party environmental-testing firm based in Lancaster.

Letters were mailed April 8 to landowners located within a mile radius of the well covering Lake and Lehman townships, and Harveys Lake borough.

Wiedenbeck said the gas company would be required by the state to correct water contamination problems.

“We will take every safeguard to not impact your water,” she said to concerned residents.

Wiedenbeck said the company is committed to responsible development and protecting the water by baseline water testing.

But, residents such as the Spezzias and homeowner Libby Davis, who resides with family at their Meeker Outlet Road property just within the well drilling radius, remain skeptical.

Davis, of Lake Township, said she has not signed an access agreement that would allow the collection of water samples.

Township officials voted unanimously on April 13 to allow the company to drill near Peaceful Valley Road.

Jen Marckini, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7210.

Copyright: Times Leader

Sporting groups, conservationists and anti-drilling neighbors protest the large-scale gas exploration.

MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press Writer

PLEASANT MOUNT, Pa. — A few hundred yards from Louis Matoushek’s farmhouse is a well that could soon produce not only natural gas, but a drilling boom in the wild and scenic Delaware River watershed.

Energy companies have leased thousands of acres of land in Pennsylvania’s unspoiled northeastern tip, hoping to tap vast stores of gas in a sprawling rock formation — the Marcellus Shale — that some experts believe could become the nation’s most productive gas field.

Plenty of folks like Matoushek are eager for the gas, and the royalty checks, to start flowing — including farmers who see Marcellus money as a way to keep their struggling operations afloat.

“It’s a depressed area,” Matoushek said. “This is going to mean new jobs, real jobs, not government jobs.”

Standing in the way is a loose coalition of sporting groups, conservationists and anti-drilling neighbors. They contend that large-scale gas exploration so close to crucial waterways will threaten drinking water, ruin a renowned wild trout fishery, wreck property values, and transform a rural area popular with tourists into an industrial zone with constant noise and truck traffic.

Both sides are furiously lobbying the Delaware River Basin Commission, the powerful federal-interstate compact agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City. The commission has jurisdiction because the drilling process will require withdrawing huge amounts of water from the watershed’s streams and rivers and because of the potential for groundwater pollution.

The well on Matoushek’s 200-acre spread in the northern Pocono Mountains in Wayne County is up first. The commission is reviewing an application by Stone Energy Corp. of Lafayette, La., to extract gas from the well — the first of what could be thousands of applications by energy companies to sink wells in an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

Stone Energy’s application has already generated more than 1,700 written comments to the DRBC. The company, which paid a $70,000 penalty for drilling the Matoushek well without DRBC approval in 2008, has already received a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Eager gas companies have leased more than 300 square miles of watershed land, conservation officials estimate.

“This is certainly just the start. There’s a lot of acreage out there, and a lot of people interested in leasing their land,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation 6,000 to 8,000 feet beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio, including about 36 percent of the Delaware River basin. New drilling techniques now allow affordable access to supplies in the Marcellus and other shales in the U.S. that once were too expensive to tap.

Energy companies combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a technique that injects vast amounts of water, along with sand and chemicals, underground to break up the shale and release the gas.

While gas companies refuse to identify the chemicals they use — claiming that is proprietary information — critics cite contamination problems in other natural gas drilling fields. They worry that unregulated fracking can taint drinking water, deplete aquifers and produce briny wastewater that can kill fish. In Dimock, Pa., about 40 miles west of the Matoushek well but outside the Delaware basin, state environmental regulators say that cracked casings on fracked wells have tainted residential water supplies with methane gas.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that it will study the impact of fracking on the environment and human health. The EPA said in 2004 there was no evidence that fracking threatens drinking water quality, but critics, including a veteran engineer in the Denver regional EPA office, argued that report’s methodology was flawed.

The industry contends environmental concerns are overblown. It says the drilling techniques are safe and that there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination caused by fracking — in part because fracking occurs far below the water table. Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from federal oversight in 2005.

Dozens of people told the DRBC at a recent public hearing why they oppose the watershed drilling. A few supporters called it an economic boon and a property-rights issue.

Richard Kreznar, who owns property in the Pennsylvania riverfront community of Damascus, said gas drilling primarily benefits large landowners and exploration companies.

“After the Delaware River and the stream next to my house are messed up, what compensation will I get? Who will put it back together again?” he asked DRBC staff.

Lee Hartman, the Delaware River chairman for Trout Unlimited, worries that large water withdrawals required for fracking will create low stream flows in the Delaware’s tributaries, damaging fish habitat. For the Matoushek well, Stone Energy wants to take 700,000 gallons a day from the Lackawaxen River’s narrow west branch.

Hartman and others say the DRBC should first study the cumulative environmental impacts of drilling in the Delaware watershed, and pass drilling regulations, before it allows any gas extraction to take place. The agency has asked for $250,000 in federal funds for a study, but commissioners have not said whether they will wait before voting on Matoushek’s well.

Opponents say they will sue if Stone Energy’s application is approved.

Downstream communities that rely on the Delaware for drinking water are worried about the coming gas boom. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposes any drilling in the watershed, while the Philadelphia City Council has asked the basin commission for an environmental study.

New York state regulators have put a moratorium on drilling in the Marcellus region, saying they won’t approve permits until they are finished drafting new regulations.

Back in northeastern Pennsylvania, Matoushek, 68, a semiretired farmer who signed a lease with Stone Energy three years ago, said he is counting on royalty checks from gas production to help fund his golden years and secure the land for future generations of his family. As far he’s concerned, the benefits far outweigh any theoretical harm.

Copyright: Times Leader

Some residents oppose, but solicitor says only state can halt drilling operations in municipalities.

RALPH NARDONE Times Leader Correspondent

LEHMAN TWP. – Township residents will be getting a new neighbor when EnCana Oil and Gas USA begins drilling for natural gas in late summer.

Township officials voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve an ordinance allowing the company to start Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations near Peaceful Valley Road.

Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Ray Iwanowski made the motion to enact the ordinance and Chairman David Sutton and Supervisor Douglas Ide voted yes.

Township Zoning Board Solicitor Jack Haley addressed a well-mannered crowd of about 70 people before the vote, essentially telling them the township was in no position to halt the company’s plans.

Some residents who expressed opposition wanted the supervisors to “send a message” by not enacting the ordinance, Haley said. That would have amounted to “civil disobedience,” he said.

According to Haley, all authority to halt drilling operations in any municipality in Pennsylvania lies in the hands of state agencies, not local governments. The township’s rules are “superseded” by the state Oil and Gas Act, he said.

The state Supreme Court already reviewed two similar cases, he added, and decided the only authority Lehman Township has applies to what roads EnCana can use.

Haley also addressed concerns raised that two of the supervisors, Ide and Sutton, have personal ties to gas drilling. Ide leased some of his own land for gas drilling, and Sutton consults property owners concerning drilling, Haley said.

Both members could only second the motion or vote yes but could not participate in any questions about the vote or make the original motion. The only supervisor who could make the motion was Iwanowski.

The state Ethics Commission checked into the potential conflict of interest involving the two supervisors.

Iwanowski outlined six conditions to the motion: that EnCana put up $13,540 to maintain Firehouse Road through the total time it is used; EnCana put up $32,192 to maintain Peaceful Valley Road similarly; all traffic related to the drilling traverse on Firehouse Road toward state Route 118; no traffic will go on Old Route 115 in the township (near the school); EnCana provide adequate insurance coverage for the township, and that a legally binding agreement be signed by EnCana holding it to its commitment.

No representatives from EnCana attended the meeting.

About 25 peaceful protesters were there greeting meeting attendees at the door with anti-drilling literature. Leanne Mazurick, 30, of Dallas Township, stressed the industry is essentially “unregulated.” She said residents in other communities of Northeastern Pennsylvania are having trouble with water contamination where there is drilling.

“We want safeguards put in place,” she said.

Karen Belli, of Dallas Township, and member of Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, emphasized a long list of ills that arise from local gas drilling. She pointed to homeowners in one local community have to use “water buffaloes” for their water supply because of the contamination.

Belli also questioned how Supervisors Ide and Sutton could be involved in the vote knowing their connections to the industry.

Not all in attendance were opposed. Barry Edwards, of Lehman Township, said the concerns about water are just a “harangue.” He added that in Susquehanna County the drilling companies have made the roads “better than the ever.”

Iwanowski said fixed-income elderly residents and farmers facing large debt are finding the gas drilling a financial “godsend.”

He said the ordinance allows EnCana to drill only vertically. If it wishes to expand horizontally underground that will require another vote from the township.

Copyright: Times Leader

More than a mile beneath parts of Pennsylvania lies a mostly untapped reservoir of natural gas.

Geologists and energy companies have known for decades about the gas in the Marcellus Shale, but only recently have figured out a way to extract it from the thick black rock about 6,000 feet underground.

Now gas drillers are looking to lease local land in an attempt to find and remove the gas, whose value increases as energy prices soar.

In January 2008 leases were being signed for values near $100 per acre. By May that value had increased to over $2000 per acre.

With lease values changing so rapidly, landowners are unsure at what price to accept a lease offer.

Kenneth L. Balliet, a forestry and business management educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, recently took a trip to Fort Worth to see the economic impacts of those deposits. He said leases are being signed for $18,000 per acre in areas where production has proven strong.

Though there are only about 20 wells in Pennsylvania so far, Balliet expects local production to eventually rival Texas’ Barnett Shale. He said a gas company confided it plans to spend $1 billion this year in leasing agreements in Pennsylvania.

Northeastern Pennsylvania is Where the Thick Organic-Rich Shale Intervals are Located.

Copyright: Geology.com
Copyright: Timesleader.com

Although signing bonuses generate an enormous amount of interest because they are guaranteed income, royalties can be significantly higher. A royalty is a share of a well’s income. The customary royalty rate is 12.5 percent of the value of gas produced by a well. Higher royalty rates are sometimes paid by aggressive buyers for highly desirable properties.

The royalties paid to eligible property owners from a well yielding over one million cubic feet of natural gas per day can be hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

If the Marcellus Shale holds up to the optimistic expectations of some natural gas experts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia could temporarily have an enormous boost in income that might be sustained for a few decades.
Copyright: Geology.com

County officials had been negotiating with EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. of Denver.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

An energy company that plans to drill for natural gas in the Back Mountain has advised Luzerne County officials that the company will not pursue a lease for natural gas drilling at Moon Lake Park.

County officials had been negotiating with EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. of Denver to drill at the park and tap lake water needed to help fracture rock to release gas.

“The county informed us of their interest in entering into a lease for the development of natural gas resources on the Moon Lake property,” EnCana spokeswoman Wendy Weidenbeck said in an e-mail.

Weidenbeck said that as with any business opportunity, companies must evaluate multiple factors to help guide their decisions.

“We carefully considered the potential needs of our business and concerns over the development of natural gas resources on recreational property. After careful consideration, we have decided that we will not pursue a lease to drill for natural gas resources on the Moon Lake property,” she said.

Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she has been out of the office after knee surgery and had not yet been briefed on the issue.

Commissioner Thomas Cooney said he had not talked with EnCana officials and that Gibbons had alerted him to the news on Friday.

Cooney said other energy companies might be interested in exploration at the county-owned park and the development of a request for proposals was not out of the question. However, “there has been no conversation leading that way right now,” he said.

Cooney said he did not know how far along talks about selling water from the lake at Moon Lake Park have come. But if the county were to negotiate the sale of water, there would have to be appraisals and bidding and permits would have to be secured, he said.

The park’s 48-acre, spring-fed lake holds millions of gallons of water and is 13.5 feet in its deepest spot, county officials have said. All park water drainage pipes also feed into the lake.

Cooney said he thinks the reaction of the Sierra Club to drilling at Moon Lake probably influenced EnCana’s decision.

An official with the Sierra Club’s Northeastern Pennsylvania chapter said in February that county commissioners didn’t have legal authority to allow natural gas drilling at the park, which is located in Plymouth Township.

Frank Muraca, who sits on the organization’s executive committee, had said much of the park land was purchased with state and federal funds in the 1960s through a program known as the Project 70 Land Acquisition and Borrowing Act.

Lands acquired through the act must be used for recreation, conservation and historical purposes unless approval is granted by the General Assembly, the governor and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Muraca had said he also found other legal and zoning stumbling blocks that would have to be met to allow drilling.

Muraca had initially presented the information to Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, who has said he couldn’t comment on Muraca’s assertions until he did his own research. He has said he is supportive of “responsible” drilling on county property to generate needed revenue.

Urban did not return a message seeking comment for this story.

The park officially closed Jan. 28 because commissioners stripped funding for staff and other expenses from the 2010 budget, saying that they could not justify non-essential expenses with a property tax increase.

Petrilla has said she is willing to consider any offer to generate revenue, as long as the park’s recreational atmosphere is not compromised. She also has said she would not support any offers that would drain or pollute the lake.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

Before 2000, many successful natural gas wells had been completed in the Marcellus. The yields of these wells were often unimpressive upon completion. However, many of these older wells in the Marcellus have a sustained production that decreases slowly over time. Many of them continued to produce gas for decades. A patient investor might make a profit from these low yield wells with slowly declining production rates.

For new wells drilled with the new horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies the initial production can be much higher than what was seen in the old wells. Early production rates from some of the new wells has been over one million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The technology is so new that long term production data is not available. As with most gas wells, production rates will decline over time, however, a second hydraulic fracturing treatment could restimulate production.
Copyright: Geology.com

Both vertical and horizontal wells are used in shale gas drilling and completion; however, horizontal wells are the increasing trend due to both environmental concerns and economic efficiency (DOE, 2009). Horizontal drilling allows more exposure within the formation to optimize capture of natural gas as well as reducing the environmental footprint of drilling activity (DOE, 2009). The United States Department of Energy’s recently released document on shale gas development in the United States explains that “a vertical well may be exposed to as little as 50 ft of formation while a horizontal well may have a lateral wellbore extending in length from 2,000 to 6,000 ft within the 50-300 ft thick formation” (DOE, 2009, p.47). As such, surface disturbance and impacts to wildlife and communities are reduced while providing optimal gas recovery; considering 16 vertical wells per 640-acre section of land would disturb 77 acres, the equivalent in horizontal wells (4- horizontal wells) would disturb approximately 7.4 acres (DOE, 2009). In addition to reductions in surface disturbance, horizontal wells allow for development in areas previously considered unavailable, primarily urban and environmentally sensitive or protected areas. Well pads can be located away, or ‘setback’, from residences, roadways, wildlife habitats and other protected areas without hampering access to available gas reserves.

In order to recover the shale gas after drilling a well, current industry practice is to hydraulic fracture the formation to stimulate the near wellbore area and facilitate the release of natural gas trapped within the shale. Hydraulic fracturing is a process whereby a fracturing fluid, primarily water, is pumped into the formation under pressure at a calculated rate to form fractures and cracks within the formation, providing a pathway for the gas to migrate to the wellhead for recovery. Sand or other granular materials are added to the fracturing fluid to help ‘prop’ open the newly created fractures after the fluid has been removed from the formation (ALL, 2008a). Additional chemicals may be added to the fracturing fluid for specific engineering purposes; these additions may include friction-reducing agents, biocides and various stabilizers to prevent corrosion of metal piping in the well (DOE, 2009; ALL, 2008a). Depending on the formation and well characteristics, multiple fracturing procedures may be performed in order to fully develop the well for gas recovery (DOE, 2009). While each well and geologic formation is unique, continuing advances in horizontal drilling and well completion practices provide additional reductions in environmental impacts from oil and gas activities while providing the nation’s critical energy supply.
Copyright: GoMarcellusshale.com

As recently as 2002 the United States Geological Survey in its Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Appalachian Basin Province, calculated that the Marcellus Shale contained an estimated undiscovered resource of about 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas.  That’s a lot of gas but spread over the enormous geographic extent of the Marcellus it was not that much per acre.

In early 2008, Terry Englander, a geoscience professor at Pennsylvania State University, and Gary Lash, a geology professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, surprised everyone with estimates that the Marcellus might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Using some of the same horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing methods that had previously been applied in the Barnett Shale of Texas, perhaps 10% of that gas (50 trillion cubic feet) might be recoverable. That volume of natural gas would be enough to supply the entire United States for about two years and have a wellhead value of about one trillion dollars!
Copyright: Geology.com


A few years ago every geologist involved in Appalachian Basin oil and gas knew about the Devonian black shale called the Marcellus. Its black color made it easy to spot in the field and its slightly radioactive signature made it a very easy pick on a geophysical well log.

However, very few of these geologists were excited about the Marcellus Shale as a major source of natural gas. Wells drilled through it produced some gas but rarely in enormous quantity. Few if any in the natural gas industry suspected that the Marcellus might soon be a major contributor to the natural gas supply of the United States – large enough to be spoken of as a “super giant” gas field.

Copyright: Geology.com