12/16/24 - 110 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/3ubmzu7a
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PA Marcellus Shale Production Up 60 Percent, 1.1 Billion Gallons Of Fracking Fluid Produced
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Marcellus Shale natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased 60 percent in the first half of 2011 and fracking fluid waste reached 1.1 billion gallons, according to figures released this week by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The state's 1,632 producing Marcellus wells pumped out 432.5 billion cubic feet of gas during the first six months of the year - a 60 percent increase from the amount of gas produced in the second half of 2010.
DEP reported there were 50.3 million tons of drill cutting waste produced in the first half of 2011, however, press report said the figure should be closer to 405,000 tons because of an error in reporting by EOG drilling. DEP reported 198,380 tons of drill cuttings during the last six months of 2010.
DEP also reported 1.1 billion gallons of waste fracking fluid was produced during the first six months of 2011. During the last six months of 2010 DEP reported 82,597,158 gallons of waste fracking fluid were produced.
An additional caution: the new figures cannot be accurately compared with the previous six months data because of changes in reporting requirements and mistakes in data entry.
DEP issued no statement on the initial report or on the errors in the reporting.
The three counties that led the state in gas production, Bradford, Susquehanna and Tioga, pulled 260 billion cubic feet of gas from the shale - slightly less than all of the Marcellus Shale gas that was produced in the entire state in the last half of 2010.
Timothy Considine, a professor of energy economics at the University of Wyoming, said the production numbers are in the ballpark of what the state's shale gas operators forecast for the year in a report he co-authored this summer.
"Pennsylvania is becoming a big gas producer in a major way," he said. The state is now a net exporter of gas, he added. "That's changing the entire natural gas market picture in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic region."
By next year, Wilkes-Barre area UGI customers should be getting natural gas from Northeastern Pennsylvania instead of other states and countries. UGI Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Love made the revelation Monday during a hearing in front of the state House Democratic Policy committee at Wilkes University.
"Natural gas is the cheaper fuel today, will be tomorrow and for the foreseeable future because of shale gas," Love said. Until recently, Pennsylvania imported 75 percent of its natural gas from other states or countries.
Visit the DEP Oil & Gas Well Reporting webpage for details.
NewsClips: State's Gas Production Up 60 Percent In First Half Of 2011
PA Natural Gas Production Rises 60 Percent Marcellus Waste Increases Attributable To New Rules, Errors |
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8/22/2011 |
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