Utica Shale Natural Gas Drilling in NY

Hold on everyone- the natural gas boom may not be limited to the Marcellus Shale Formation, but yet another, possibly more lucrative natural gas deposit called the Utica Shale Formation. This formation runs from the middle of Pennsylvania up through Quebec. The revenue potential of this formation may make farmers millionaires and save the states of Pennsylvania and New York from bankruptcy.

While much of the focus has been on the Marcellus Shale Formation that stretches across Appalachia, the research and development of the Utica Formation has oil and gas companies vying for poll position in getting landowners to sign away the rights for exploration. In addition, the rich mineral deposits that also lie along both of these natural gas formations are incredibly valuable.

The current output for natural gas wells in the Utica Formation located in Quebec have an output of approximately one million cubic feet per day.  This formation overlaps a substantial portion of the Marcellus Shale Formation in the SouthernTier of New York.  If drilling were to be done, either vertically or by use of hydrofracting in New York, it would decrease New York City's dependency on oil and coal.   

New York will be deciding which natural gas drilling permits to issue in the coming months.  Currently there is a heated debate on whether hydrofracting should be allowed or not, due in part to concern over the salt water brine produced during the process being released into water tables.

The Utica Shale Formation, also known as Ordovician Utica Shale, overlaps the Marcellus Shale Formation as it extends from Quebec, Canada to the middle of Pennsylvania. It is underneath the Marcellus Shale, which will mean that natural gas drilling companies will have to drill much deeper to reach these gas deposits. Shale gas deposits can be tapped by using vertical drilling or by the hydrofracting process. The Utica Shale is a thick shale; it ranges in depth from 150 to 700 feet thick. Shale gas that has been extracted successfully exists in rocks from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.

New York newspapers are following with interest the natural gas exploration going on in neighboring Pennsylvania. The reports, however, seem to only cover problems that arise in the drilling process, not the positive effects that have occurred or are happening to local and state economies, as well as for landowners, many of which are farmers.

One report, Bradford County Residents see Marcellus Shale development changing their lives on the Star-Gazette.com website detailed how the farmers are likely to blow their earnings from natural gas drilling on “dream vacations,” and that the drilling was taking place in picturesque “old pastures.” The writers apparently have no concept of what it is like to be a farmer, nor what the rural community has to do in order to eke out a living. Farmers do not have 401K or retirement plans. They usually don’t have health insurance and rarely, if ever, can afford to send their children to college.

Running a farm is very expensive, and with agriculture prices diving and extensive new government regulations forcing many farmers out of business, it is no wonder that these rural dwellers are ready to latch on to anything that will lift them out of poverty. These landowners have the right to sell the rights to natural gas drilling companies if they wish, and not feel that they have to preserve unusable pasture land for the general public's viewing pleasure.

Currently, as of August 2010, there is a moratorium on drilling/hydrofracting in NY, which would last until May of 2011. This moratorium has the potential to be extended an additional 3 years if the EPA does another study of the hydrofracting process and its relationship to drinking water.

The EPA previously did a similar study that was published in 2004. The new proposed study would cost taxpayers 1.9 million dollars.

Update: March, 2011, drilling will be permitted beginning in July of this year. Permits are being issued, and have been since November of 2010. Propane fracking may be the favored method in the fracking process as there are many opponents of hydrofracking.

Update: October, 2011, an second open comment period is nearing the end on the latest SGEIS report. At the end of the comment period, gas lease permits may be issued beginning in 2012. Latest report from the NY Post: Fracking Gets a Clean Bill of Health

Update: December, 2011, a third open comment period is going to be allowed. The DEC appears incapable of making a decision in a timely fashion. The comment periods have lasted for 3 years now.