All Signs Point to Marcellus Boom Still Going Strong

 Natural gas production Pennsylvania has doubled in the past year despite facing low market prices and a new tax on the industry.

The Department of Environmental Protection released figured that were quite impressive and surprising to some. Drillers operating in PA, extracted 895 billion cubic feet of gas during the first half of 2012.

According to watchdog.com "More than 2,700 actively producing Marcellus shale gas wells exist in Pennsylvania, with the highest concentration in Washington and Greene counties in the state’s southwest corner and Tioga, Susquehanna and Bradford counties along the northern tier, according to DEP.

At the midpoint of 2011, about 1,600 wells were producing gas in the commonwealth, a figure that climbed to more than 2,200 by the end of last year.

Mark Szybist, a staff attorney for PennFuture, an environmental organization here, said celebrating increased production should include a thorough review of the environmental impact of the industry.
“It would be nice if DEP tracked environmental consequences as much as they do the production itself,” Szybuist said. “It seems premature to assess what this production means without looking at those costs.”

Sunday said the department commissioned a yearlong study of emissions from natural gas compressor stations in Washington County, which began at the end of July.

The department also required all drillers in the state to submit emissions data for 2011. Sunday said that data would be available before the end of the year.

Read the entire article published by Watchdog.com.