Gas Drillers Miss Progress Report Deadline

Washington PA Observer Reporter
28 August 2010
Staff & Wire Reports

More than half of the natural gas drillers operating in the Marcellus Shale missed the deadline to report the production levels of their wells in violation of state law, the state Department of Environmental Protection said Friday.

DEP Secretary John Hanger said in a news release that 41 of the 74 oil and gas companies operating in the Marcellus Shale, or 55 percent, failed to submit reports on the past 12 months of production by the Aug. 15 deadline.

"When the General Assembly approved this law and the governor signed it, they did so because they believed this requirement provided much-needed transparency into the industry's operations," Hanger said in a statement. "The fact that so many companies failed to meet the deadline for providing this information is troubling. We plan to follow up with each noncompliant firm and pursue whatever enforcement action is necessary to get them to follow the law."

The new law required gas companies drilling into the Marcellus formation to report production totals from July 1, 2009, to June 30 by Aug. 15. Companies also will be required to report production every six months, making the next report due Feb. 15. Prior to the new law taking effect, DEP was required by law to keep production reporting data confidential for five years.

According to DEP, companies with operations in Washington and Greene counties that filed production data on time included Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, CNX Gas Co., Consol Gas Co., EQT Production Co. and Range Resources Appalachia.

Local producers failing to meet the Aug. 15 deadline were Atlas Energy Resources and Consol Pa. Coal Co.

Atlas spokesman Nate Calvert said Friday the company had technical difficulties reporting its production figures on deadline and received a 30-day extension from the DEP until Sept. 15.

Consol Energy spokesman Joe Cerenzia did not immediately return a call seeking comment.