Tag: natural gas

Energy Corporation of America Still Gathering Information on Possible Injection Well

Energy Corporation of America still hasn’t decided whether to turn one of its former gas wells in northern West Virginia into an underground injection well.

ECA is thinking about putting an underground injection well in Preston County, near Decker’s Creek. The company is still investigating this proposal and hasn’t come to a conclusion about what it will do.

This possibility has upset many recreationists who use and want to preserve the Decker’s Creek Watershed. Earlier this year, the Friends of Decker’s Creek held a public meeting about the proposal. The group’s executive director, Elizabeth Wiles, says it would harm the watershed, which is bouncing back from years of acid mine drainage problems.

“We have implemented a number of water quality improvement projects that have shown water quality is improving, fish populations are coming back, especially in the areas upstream of where this well would be located,” said Wiles earlier this year.

If ECA decides to go through with the project, it would be establishing a Class Two injection well, which basically takes brine water and fluids from natural gas drilling operations and injects the waste into the ground.

Will W.Va. Get an Ethane Cracker Plant?

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced this afternoon that a Brazilian petrochemical company, Odebrecht, has chosen a site in Wood County to explore the possible…

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced this afternoon that a Brazilian petrochemical company, Odebrecht, has chosen a site in Wood County to explore the possible location of an ethane cracker plant and three polyethlene plants. 

The governor was disappointed when Shell announced a few years ago it was choosing Pennsylvania over West Virginia for a cracker plant.  And he’s wanted one ever since.

“Literally from the first day of my administration I’ve made it a priority to take advantage of the vast resources of the Marcellus and Utica shale gas reserves to do more than just extract them and ship them out somewhere else but to create manufacturing jobs here in the Mountain State,” Tomblin said at the announcement in Parkersburg.

The complex will be called Ascent, short for  Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise.

An official with Odebrecht says the company is moving cautiously. David Peoples said he didn’t want to raise expectations unnecessarily.  But he was frank when he talked about needing a skilled and trained workforce.

“I was talking to the union representatives this morning and we have a lot of jobs,” Peoples said.  “We have over 180,000 employees world wide and here in the United States one of the issues we have is drugs.  And there’s a drug testing policy.  For all of the young or even for the senior citizens like myself you do not get hired if you do not pass the drug testing policy.”       

Ascent’s feasibility will depend on several important variables, including the contracting of long-term ethane supply, as well as financing, regulatory approvals, and appropriate governmental support.

WVSORO concerned about floodplains and gas drilling

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is focusing its attention on how floodplains are used in natural gas drilling activity.WVSORO…

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is focusing its attention on how floodplains are used in natural gas drilling activity.

WVSORO co-founder Dave McMahon says because of the regulations on the books, surface owners aren’t notified when gas drillers want to put equipment on floodplains. This is usually the case if the surface owner doesn’t own the mineral rights.

McMahon says floodplain ordinances, implemented by counties, need to change accordingly to fix the gaps.

“What should be scary for counties is, the driller has threatened to sue the county for tens of thousands of dollars, saying that because the county had a bad floodplain ordinance, that resulted in their permit getting denied by the judge, they want to sue the county for all the expenses they had in putting the permit together,” McMahon said.

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