You might not always be able to see it or hear it. In fact, there’s a good chance you may never even notice it’s going on. But in different parts of Chenango County, the hunt for natural gas has created a flurry of activity in the countryside.

Who’s causing all the ruckus?
The source of it all: Nornew Incorporated, a natural gas exploration company based out of Jamestown.
Nornew expanded its operation into Chenango County roughly three years ago, setting up shop on the first floor of The Eaton Center in Norwich. Since then, they’ve drilled 74 wells in the area, mostly in and around McDonough, Plymouth and Smyrna (along with a cluster near Eaton, in Madison County). Of that 74, about 40 are currently producing gas.
Even still, many local residents aren’t familiar with exploration, said Doug Stebbins, a Field Production Supervisor for Nornew, as we pulled into the first site of the day – a drilling rig in McDonough.
“It’s new to this area,” said Stebbins, who has 26 years experience in the business. “It’s a change. A lot of people haven’t seen it before.”
While it may be somewhat under the radar now, Stebbins says the company “is here to stay,” and as its production increases, so will the visibility of the operation.
“We definitely plan on increasing our well numbers as time goes on,” he said.

Well tending
If business picks up like Nornew expects, its well tenders will be a lot busier.
What is a well tender, you ask?
They mainly make sure the sites are safe and cranking out the optimum amount of gas (I wanted to tell Doug they should just feed the wells Taco Bell, but I figured he wouldn’t think that was funny).
“For a well tender, it’s all about production, production, production,” he said.
And that’s what I spent most of my day with Nornew doing – producing (well, watching production, anyway).
From my point of view, the job looked pretty simple. It involved checking series of gauges, adjusting some knobs, crunching a few numbers and scanning a bar code with what looked like a grocery store price gun.
However, it only looked easy because “nothing went wrong,” Doug said.
When something does go wrong – like a well that has shut itself off or is under-producing – it’s the tender’s job to find out why and fix it, quickly. If they don’t, for every minute that site is off-line, the landowner and Nornew lose money, plain and simple.
“There’s a lot that goes with this job,” Doug said. “You’re out there everyday, and you make sure everything runs smoothly.”
If everything goes right, a tender can hit 30 wells or more a day. If they hit a snag, they may only get to five or six. Regardless, they are on call 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
Aside from the operation, the well tender plays an important role making sure things run smoothly between the company and the landowners.
“You are the face of the company,” he said. “You are the one who’s seen out there everyday. We take a lot of responsibility on with that. Because in this business, your reputation is very important. If we have a bad reputation, the public won’t do business with us.”
Like any business relationship, Doug said both sides have their differences. Often times, it’s also the tenders job to work them out.
“They have needs, we have to do our best to meet those,” he said.
The biggest perks of being a well tender: Doug says it’s being outdoors and meeting different people.
The worst part: “The worst part about this job is the winter, no question,” said Doug.
Being out in the cold, trying to use tools and trouble-shoot problems, takes it’s toll. I had a hard enough time figuring out the job, and it was a comfortable 80 degrees and breezy when Doug took me around to different well sites (in an air conditioned heavy duty pick-up, I might add).
Overall, I had it easy, Doug said. Most of the time, roads are either so bad or nonexistent, that tenders have to use four wheelers or snowmobiles to get from well-to-well.
In Doug’s case, working production for Nornew takes him back-and-forth between Jamestown and Norwich. He says the miles add up, but living out of hotels, finding the best cup of coffee and making small talk at local hangouts can make the job interesting.
“You meet a lot of great people,” Doug said.
Most importantly, Doug says the key to surviving the long hours and long distance from home is making the job fun.
“We always play jokes and pick on each other,” he said. “If you can’t have fun, what’s the point of being out here?”

How does it work?
Doug took me through the basics of the industry; from the first dig of the drill to the final product getting piped to local and distant markets. To say the least, from start to finish, it’s quite an operation – one I still can’t say I fully understand.
Here’s how it looks:
• It starts with geology. Scientists conduct seismic tests (they send vibrations into the ground that tell them where the gas is, or at least where it’s supposed to be).
• Nornew then negotiates leases with the landowners that are sitting on the deposit. The standard agreement involves landowners getting paid a percentage on whatever comes out of the ground.
• After the lease is secured, the company has to obtain a host of environmental and technical permits before it can clear land or do any drilling.
• With the green light from the state and local government, the next phase is drilling. From set-up and take-down, with two seven to eight man crews working around the clock, drilling can last from a few days up to a few weeks.
• Land is cleared, access roads are made (if necessary), drilling rigs are brought in and eventually wells and pipelines are built underground.
• Once the wells are up and running, tenders take over and keep them running.
• After a well finally dries up, it’s plugged and the land is restored.
It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years before a well is up and running. The same goes for the length of time a well produces. It can range from a few months to more than 20 years.
Nornew wouldn’t give any figures on how much gas it takes out of the ground in Chenango County or how many wells it plans to build, citing competitive reasons.

Neat facts
• When drilling, workers make and pump mud down the hole as a way to control the gas pressure from shooting it out of the ground.
• When sending gas through a well, they use salt water to carry it through the pipes on its way to the pipeline. Then the mixture gets separated before going into a large air compressor that sends it on its way.