Posts Tagged ‘treasurer’

By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
Published: July 20, 2010

LEHMAN TWP. – The company drilling the Back Mountain’s first exploratory natural gas well will take care of township roads, but residents should be proactive in reporting problems, supervisors said Monday.

Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc. will start site preparation in August to drill an exploratory natural gas well at 203 Zosh Road in Lake Township, not far from the Lehman Township border.

During the process, trucks leaving the site will use Ide, Meeker and Slocum roads in Lehman Township to reach state Route 118. Encana has agreed to maintain the roads in equal or better condition during the drilling process, Supervisor Chairman David Sutton said in response to a question by resident Joseph Rutchauskas.

Encana paid for repaving the stone arch bridge on Slocum Road, but the township’s road department filled in all the potholes, Supervisor Douglas Ide said. But the company will take that over when work begins, he said.

“The day they start trucks, the maintenance is theirs for the duration,” Ide said.

Rutchauskas said work had already started, because Zosh Road – which becomes Ide Road in Lehman Township – was closed, so Encana should be responsible now. The supervisors disagreed.

Penn State’s Center for Dirt and Gravel Roads is overseeing a project with the Luzerne County Conservation District in which Encana is paying to strip and pave a 100-foot section of Zosh Road to see how it will hold up under heavy truck traffic.

According to plans filed with the Luzerne County planning and zoning department, Encana anticipates 16 to 18 weeks of traffic during which a total of approximately 2,100 trucks will travel on Lake and Lehman township roads: 200 during site preparation, 100 during the well drilling and 1,800 during the completion phase, when tankers will bring in the roughly 6 million gallons of water needed for hydraulic fracturing.

Encana has submitted a $956,844 bond to cover Outlet, Ide, Meeker Outlet and Slocum roads and the Slocum Road stone bridge. Township officials stressed Encana’s willingness to work with them.

“Anything we have billed Encana for, we have been paid within 30 days,” Treasurer Alvin Cragle said.

“They have been nothing but cooperative in everything we’ve asked them to do,” Sutton agreed.

Rutchauskas asked the supervisors to keep an eye on the drill site and coordinate with Lake Township so residents will be aware of issues like road closings.

Sutton said they would, but “we don’t have the resources to watch 24-7,” he said. He said residents need to be proactive and call if they see problems.

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com , 570-821-2072

View article here.

Copyright:  The Citizens Voice

N.J. gas firm eyes $300M income

ANDREW MAYKUTH The Philadelphia Inquirer

A southern New Jersey gas firm that bought a $2 million Marcellus Shale interest in 2008 says it might generate $300 million in income over its lifetime.

South Jersey Industries Inc., the Folsom, N.J., company that owns South Jersey Gas and several nonutility energy businesses, disclosed to analysts that its purchase of mineral rights in northern Pennsylvania could pay off handsomely.

Chief executive officer Edward J. Graham, speaking to analysts about the company’s annual earnings, said two horizontal wells in which South Jersey Industries has a stake will begin producing income this quarter.

He said the gas operator, St. Mary Land & Exploration Co., of Tulsa, Okla., was still tying the wells to a pipeline, but feels “really good about the prospects.”

Two more wells are planned for this year on the 21,000-acre property in McKean County.

In early 2008, South Jersey Industries paid $2 million for an interest in a partnership that owns the deep-gas rights on the property, Stephen Clark, the company’s treasurer, said in an interview. Since then, the value of mineral rights has skyrocketed.

South Jersey Industries estimates that its combined royalties and ownership rights will net 10.25 percent of the value of the gas produced — the company’s share would be about $300 million, based on an average price of $6 per thousand cubic feet.

“It has the opportunity to be very productive for us,” Clark said.

Graham told analysts that it was premature to estimate earnings, which depend upon the number of wells drilled and the price of natural gas. Production could take years, or even decades, to realize.

The estimates illustrate the huge potential in the Marcellus Shale, which lies under much of Pennsylvania and several surrounding states.

Copyright: Times Leader