Drillers Head To Brooke County

Push for Marcellus Shale natural gas moving north

Wheeling WV Intelligencer
14 December 2010
By Casey Junkins

WELLSBURG - West Virginia's natural gas drilling boom continues marching northward, as Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy plans to drill on at least four separate sites in Brooke County.

With the Ohio County drilling sites near The Highlands and on Dement Road well under construction - and widespread drilling and gas production ongoing in Tyler, Wetzel and Marshall counties - it seems Brooke County residents can expect to soon see drilling rigs popping up across the landscape.

According to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Oil and Gas, Chesapeake is
seeking permission to drill on the following sites throughout Brooke County:

§     Property in the name of James Seabright, northeast of Bethany;

§     Property in the name of Mark Owen, northeast of Bethany;

§     Property in the name of John Hupp, northeast of West Liberty;

§     Property in the name of Barry Greathouse, northeast of West Liberty.

Efforts to contact Seabright, Owen, Hupp and Greathouse were unsuccessful. Brooke County Commissioners Bernie Kazienko, Marty Bartz and Norma Tarr did not respond to requests for comment.

Stacey Brodak, director of corporate development for Chesapeake, provided this statement: "Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, has applied for permits for four pad sites in Brooke County: Seabright, Greathouse, Owen and Hupp. Those permits have not yet been received. We continue to formulate our development plans for all acreage throughout West Virginia, but generally do not comment publicly regarding our leasing efforts."

Chesapeake Appalachia is the eastern subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy.

Property owners in Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler counties have signed drilling deals to yield them lease revenues anywhere from $5 per acre to at least as much as $4,000 per acre. The range for production royalties to be granted to landowners goes from 12.5 percent to at least 18.75 percent.

A report titled "The Economic Impacts of the Marcellus Shale: Implications for New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia" shows the drilling may be able to create 22,928 jobs in the Mountain State next year.

Recent well fires and traffic accidents involving gas company vehicles on narrow rural roads have some residents worried about future drilling in the area. Employees working to open the Chesapeake "Glenn Didriksen" well on Ohio County's Dement Road have temporarily blocked the roadway to move equipment in and out of the site.

Channce Gamble, assistant director of the Brooke County Emergency Management Agency, said he knows county leaders are slated to meet with Chesapeake officials sometime in the next month regarding safety issues, but he could not pinpoint an exact date.

As for the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, process drillers use to stimulate Marcellus wells to release more gas, the procedure calls for pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals down into the shafts.

According to Chesapeake, 99.5 percent of its fracking fluid consists of water and sand. Some of the chemicals used include hydrochloric acid, commonly found in swimming pool cleaner; ethylene glycol, commonly found in antifreeze; isopropanol, used in glass cleaner; and glutaraldehyde, a disinfectant to eliminate bacteria.