Chesapeake Wave Now Heading North

More drilling operations are apparent in Ohio County

Wheeling WV  Intelligencer
11 April 2011
By Casey Junkins, Staff Writer

WHEELING - Those driving around Ohio County may see drilling rigs moving between natural gas sites or other signs of heavy truck traffic.

There are now active Chesapeake Energy gas wells on the south side of Interstate 70 near The Highlands; along Stone Church Road near the Elm Grove section of Wheeling; along Dement Road in the area north of Oglebay Park; along GC&P Road in the area north of Oglebay; and along Harvey Road near West Liberty.

On the other hand, after seeing widespread drilling in their county over the past few years, Wetzel County residents are seeing a slowdown in actual gas drilling. This is because Chesapeake has been moving its rigs that drilled a plethora of wells in Wetzel County to now work in Ohio County.

"Our present drilling activity is focused in Ohio and Brooke counties. Future drilling activity will further develop our leasehold in Wetzel County," said Stacey Brodak, Chesapeake's director of corporate development.

"Chesapeake Energy has a significant inventory of acreage and well locations remaining to be drilled in Wetzel County. Although we do not have any drilling rigs operating in the area at this time, completions and pipeline activities will continue," she added.

Ohio and Brooke County Drilling Sites

These are the sites at which Chesapeake has West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection permission to drill in Ohio County, with some drilling ongoing:

§     Property in the name of Glenn Didriksen, north of Oglebay.

§     Property in the name of George Gantzer, south of I-70 near the Pennsylvania border.

§     Property in the name of Esther Weeks, northwest of Dallas.

§     Property in the name of Larry Ball, east of West Liberty.

§     Property in the name of Edward Nichols, northeast of the Woodsdale and Edgewood sections of Wheeling.

§     Property in the name of Timothy Hays, east of West Liberty.

§     Property in the name of Roy Ferrell, south of I-70 near the Pennsylvania border.

§     Property in the name of Dorothy Frye, south of I-70 near The Highlands.

§     Property in the name of Clarence Farmer, north of Valley Grove.

§     Property in the name of Brian Dytko, along Stone Church Road.

§     Property in the name of Couch, south of West Liberty.

§     Property in the name of Dallas Hall, north of Oglebay Park.

§     Property in the name of Gary Kestner, east of West Liberty near the Pennsylvania border.

§     Property in the name of Melvin Kahle, north of Triadelphia (Kahle is contesting Chesapeake's right to drill on his property in federal court).

As for Brooke County, these are the sites on which Chesapeake plans to drill, or is actively drilling:

§     Property in the name of Margaret Corbin, between Bethany and the Pennsylvania border.

§     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, east of Windsor Heights.

§     Property in the name of Mildred Mani, east of Wellsburg.

Possible Problems

Chesapeake and Ohio County Schools officials worked out a plan to prevent massive gas company trucks from possibly colliding with school buses by designing a schedule that will allow the large vehicles to be traveling the same direction on the same narrow country roads at the same time.

A check of West Virginia DEP records this weeks shows Chesapeake still has some violations that "have not been closed or abated" in Wetzel and Marshall counties.

Of the violations Brodak acknowledged, some are for a Marshall County well near Fish Creek east of Lynn Camp. DEP records show these violations as "inadequate erosion and sediment control" violation, along with a "pollution of waters of the state" violation for the same site.

Brodak said these problems involved a slip that caused soil to fall into an unnamed tributary to Fish Creek.

"The slip near the Baker Pad was augmented by the recent precipitation and snow melt, causing a shifting of the soil of the ground below our constructed pad area. This slip reached up to the edge of our construction location and caused our constructed slope to become unstable," she said.

Chesapeake also received a citation for "wasting natural gas" at a Wetzel County site east of Proctor near the Marshall County border on Feb. 26.

"We received a notice of violation for an unintentional, small release of natural gas at a well site. The duration of this incident was approximately one hour. As a corrective action to minimize future releases, Chesapeake has installed additional automated well-control equipment to prevent any further releases," Brodak said of this problem.