Fracturing

Natural gas drilling in West Virginia’s Marcellus Shale already has enriched the state through new jobs and more revenue and is on track to create up to 20,000 jobs by 2015, according to a study by West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER).

Having enjoyed success in the Haynesville Shale in DeSoto Parish, LA, Houston-based Mainland Resources Inc. heard a call to go east — to Mississippi, where as it turns out the Haynesville “expands significantly,” CEO Nicholas Atencio told NGI’s Shale Daily.

Trans Energy Inc. has begun drilling the Lucey #1H well, its seventh horizontal Marcellus Shale well in Marshall County, WV, the company said. The drilling of the Keaton #1H well, which was begun by the independent exploration and production company in November (see Shale Daily, Nov. 23, 2010), has been completed. St. Marys, WV-based Trans Energy said it completed the 11-stage hydraulic fracture (frack) of Stout #2H in Marshall County last week and this week will begin the process of drilling out the frack plugs; fracking is scheduled in March for Keaton #1H and in February for Groves #1H, the company said. Trans Energy is moving to a development phase from an exploration phase as it develops its acreage position in northern West Virginia.

A handful of producers have taken the initial steps to upload their data on fluids used in hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) to www.hydraulicfracturingdisclosure.org — a state-based registry run by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), a GWPC official said.

A citizens group is calling on Murrysville, PA, to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the borough, located about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County.

The debate over hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is sparking concerns about drinking water safety in the Marcellus Shale area and nationwide, according to the results of a trio of surveys released by the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI).

Quebec’s environmental bureau has been granted a brief extension to complete a report on the impact that increased Utica Shale development would have on the province.

New York Gov. David Paterson has vetoed a bill that would have put in place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state through May 15, and at the same time he extended until July 1 a deadline for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prepare a supplemental generic environmental impact statement (SGEIS).

The Obama administration fully supports a cumulative study of the effects of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, but it also supports the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) decision to release proposed rules that would allow some natural gas development projects before that study is completed, according to a letter written by Brigadier Gen. Peter A. DeLuca.