Tag: Gas Drilling

W.Va., Noble Negotiating Deal for Drilling Under Ohio River

  West Virginia is negotiating a lease with Noble Energy for oil and gas drilling under the Ohio River.

Department of Commerce spokeswoman Chelsea Ruby tells The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register that Noble submitted the highest bid to lease a 1,400-acre state-owned tract under the river.

Ruby says Noble has agreed to pay $3,500 per acre to lease the land. She didn’t say what percentage of production royalties Noble will pay the state.

Noble spokeswoman Stacey Brodak declined comment on the deal because it hasn’t been finalized.

The state earlier leased 232 acres under the river to Gastar Exploration for drilling. Both tracts are in Marshall County.

Leasing state land for a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a new venture for West Virginia.

EPA Seeks Comment on Fracking Chemicals Disclosure

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on ways to disclose information about the chemicals used in the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking.

The EPA says in a Friday release that it is also seeking input on incentives and programs that could help develop safer fracking chemicals.

The 90-day comment period is an advanced notice of proposed new rules, but is no guarantee that the regulations will become law. The EPA could also propose voluntary steps for energy companies to take. During the fracking process water, sand and chemicals are injected into such deep underground formations to free oil or gas.

The gas rich Marcellus Shale lies under large parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. 

WV DEP Investigating Tank Rupture in Doddridge County

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is still investigating the cause of a tank rupture at a gas well site in Doddridge County last week.

A tank ruptured at an Antero Resources gas drilling site last Friday, causing a small blast. Although no injuries or fire were reported, investigators are trying to figure out what exactly happened. The tank was holding hydraulic fracturing flowback water, says DEP spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater.

“Our inspectors are still investigating, but they believe the cause was a buildup of pressure in the tank. Until the investigation is done, all production on that pad has been shut down,” she said.

There’s not a specific timeline of when the investigation is expected to be complete.

Still No Decision on Possible UIC Well Near Decker's Creek

Energy Corporation of America still hasn’t made a final decision on whether to turn a natural gas well near Decker’s Creek in northern West Virginia into an underground injection well.

ECA hasn’t completed all of its investigation, says ECA spokeswoman Jennifer Viewig. ECA has an old well in Preston County near the water body Decker’s Creek. It’s looking to turn that site into what would be a Class Two Underground Injection Well. That means it would accept brine water and fluids from natural gas drilling operations and inject it into the ground there.

But it’s near one of the most popular recreation spots in northern West Virginia, Decker’s Creek. And when ECA first talked about doing this, to the Friends of Decker’s Creek, the organization wasn’t happy.

The group has held a public meeting to discuss the potential underground injection well  with local residents and has warned such a project could damage the improvements the watershed has achieved after years of acid mine drainage problems.

Report: W.Va. Taxes Natural Gas Drilling Four Times as Much as Pa.

A new report from a nonpartisan office of the Pennsylvania Legislature says its state’s taxes on the natural gas drilling boom are among the lowest in the nation.

The figures released Thursday by the Independent Fiscal Office found that Pennsylvania is the only state with significant production that doesn’t impose a severance tax based on the volume of gas produced.

 
The report found that a Pennsylvania well that began producing in 2014 will be taxed at an effective tax rate of no more than 1.6 percent, and perhaps less than half of that.

By comparison, a similar well in West Virginia will be taxed at over seven percent.

 
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, says the analysis is flawed because it doesn’t include other factors, such as corporate taxes.

Pa. Environmental Officials Hope to Have Well Controlled By End of Week

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials say they hope the gas well that went up in flames last week can be controlled by Friday.

“Obviously, there’s a number of contingencies that could occur, from weather, to unanticipated problems,” said Scott Perry, spokesman for the DEP.

A fire last week caused significant damage to a gas well that had been hydraulically fractured. It’s just north of the West Virginia border.

Perry says the well was going to be going through a process where water is removed from the well, when the explosion occurred. The investigation is ongoing.

“The most critical question is why did this well fail,” said Perry.

“There was an uncontrolled release of gas, and that was ignited from a source that was yet to be determined.”

Gas is still venting at the site. One worker at the site when the explosion occurred is missing. Officials told media outlets Wednesday remains were found at the site, and the worker is presumed to be dead.

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