Independent producer CNX Gas Corp. said it plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year.

In the Marcellus Shale, CNX has a leasehold that includes about 161,000 acres. In Kentucky and Virginia’s Huron Shale CNX holds another 193,000 acre-leasehold. Tennessee’s Chattanooga Shale holdings number about 132,000 acres, and in the New Albany Shale play, which extends into Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, CNX has about 300,000 acres.

CEO Nicholas J. DeIuliis said the company had “been encouraged by the success others have had in these shales…” and the budget “vividly shows how we continue to accelerate the monetization of our tremendous asset base. It also shows the start of a systemic approach for assessing our nearly 800,000 acres having shale potential.”

The Pittsburgh-based company, which unveiled the budget earlier this week, said that overall, exploration spending will jump 35% to $470 million from $348.6 million in 2007. Of the total, $377 million directed toward drilling, midstream and land operations in the company’s Virginia and Pennsylvania coalbed methane (CBM) development projects.

CNX plans to drill 300 CBM development wells in Virginia, 100 in the Mountaineer play and 100 in Nittany play, which is up from the 364 wells it drilled in those three areas last year. The company holds a 100% working interest in all of the leaseholds.

Besides its gas shale plays, CNX also will be developing its holdings in the Trenton Black River, which is “thought to underlie nearly all of the Appalachian shales,” the company said. In that leasehold, “CNX Gas believes it has 486,000 acres with Trenton Black River potential.”

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