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KEYSER, W.Va. — Of the 110 natural gas wells permitted in Mineral County, the first one that specifically was permitted to be drilled into Marcellus shale is under construction on Orville and Irene Broadwater’s farm, in the Keyser area, according to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
The permit was issued to Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, which is affiliated with Chesapeake Energy headquartered in Oklahoma City, in February 2008.
Neither Chesapeake Appalachia LLC nor the Broadwaters were able to be reached for comment on the Marcellus shale well.
Marcellus shale is an underground rock formation that spans eight states in the Northeast, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
According to Terry Engelder, a Penn State University professor of geoscience and an expert on Marcellus shale gas, Marcellus shale contains approximately 489 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — enough to last U.S. consumers around 19 years.
Mike Bland, county coordinator for Mineral County, said that all the legislation and permitting with Marcellus shale is handled statewide.
“Any regulatory processes would be through the state — no regulation at the county level,” said Bland.
Cindy Pyles, commission president for Mineral County, said that although “counties can have zoning,” she also agreed with Bland that it’s more of a state issue.
“A lot of our hands are tied to Charleston,” said Pyles.
Richard Lechliter, Mineral County commissioner, said that while he would like to see the resource tapped, he wants to be sure no harm is done.
“I’m hopeful that we will be able to use the reserve. I hope that we will be able to use that resource in a wise manner,” said Lechliter, adding that he wanted to be sure that property owners are properly reimbursed and that the “gas is extracted in a way that doesn’t harm our natural resource of water.”
Not all natural gas wells in Mineral County are active, most are considered either abandoned or plugged.
“The (wells) that are abandoned now ... could be put into use,”said James Martin, chief of DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas.
Martin added that while those that are plugged technically can be unplugged to be used, it’s “not at all common.”
As for Marcellus shale, Martin said that wells drilled in the past could have technically been through Marcellus shale, however they do not use the same technology to extract the natural gas.
David Belcher, inspector supervisor of the Office of Oil and Gas, confirmed that there are 110 wells permitted in Mineral County.
Of those wells, the DEP website says that 17 of them are considered abandoned, which Martin describes as not operational. There are 46 that are plugged and only seven that operate as active wells.
In addition to the one being constructed on the Broadwater property, there is one other well that’s currently in the construction process that was permitted in 2007, but not specifically for Marcellus shale.
DEP’s online source says that 36 of the 110 wells permitted have never been drilled and one well’s status is unknown.
Emily Newman can be contacted at enewman@times-news.com.
Local News
Marcellus shale well being built on Keyser area farm
All regulation of drilling for natural gas goes through state
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