Land group, town councils, Norse – all waiting on state drilling regs
NORWICH – If the outcome of Tuesday’s election is any indication, it would appear that Chenango County is open for natural gas industry business.
Despite a number of candidates for town council positions who said they would oppose hydraulic fracturing or slowing down the state’s environmental regulations review, none were elected to office.
“Chenango County made a solid statement in favor of responsible natural gas development in the elections yesterday,” said Central New York Landowner’s Coalition President Brian Conover.
The 204,000 acre strong land group is in the midst of developing a strategy that, in Conover’s words, “would have a great influence” on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Governor Andrew Cuomo as they work to close out the comment period for the draft set of regs, called SGEIS. The DEC is beginning the public hearing phase of its most recent version of draft regs, and some say the agency could begin permitting companies to drill in New York next spring. A hearing is scheduled from 1 to 4 and from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Forum Theater in Binghamton.
Conover would not be more specific, but said coalition members would learn of the strategy shortly. The group is comprised of landowners from the surrounding counties, 140,000 acres of which lie in Chenango County. They were all encouraged to vote on Tuesday for the majority of candidates who called for safe drilling.
CNYL is currently marketing its 38-page lease to energy companies interested in developing natural gas resources from the Marcellus and Utica shales. Conover said the lease addresses all of the coalition’s environmental concerns.
“But the reality is that industry is going to wait until they know exactly what they are dealing with in our state,” he said.
When New York State Senator Tom Libous addressed a group of business and government leaders last month at the Eaton Center, he said the state is becoming friendlier to safe and responsible drilling. He suggested that downstate politicians who are blocking the jobs promised by the energy industry should rely on scientists and the DEC to keep New York’s drinking water safe.
Norse Energy Inc., the Norwegian company doing most of the natural gas development in Chenango County, was forced to suspend its drilling program in August due to the state’s now three-year permitting delay. The move is designed to preserve cash for potentially more profitable Marcellus and Utica Shale development in the future, company officials say.
Norse currently has 34 producing wells here, mostly in Smyrna and mostly drilled in the Herkimer Sandstone strata. The wells are connected to the Dominion transmission pipeline that cuts horizontally across upstate New York. Norse also has about 30 applications on record at the DEC for Chenango County wells that are in various stages of permitting and development. Some could be drilled and shut in or abandoned; none are producing.
The company also completed two applications that target the Utica Shale, one in Smyrna and one in Preston. A vertical well into the Marcellus Shale in Oxford is already drilled, but shut in, and waiting for the state to finish the SGEIS and for pipeline infrastructure to be built south to the Millennium Pipeline in Broome County.
Despite a number of candidates for town council positions who said they would oppose hydraulic fracturing or slowing down the state’s environmental regulations review, none were elected to office.
“Chenango County made a solid statement in favor of responsible natural gas development in the elections yesterday,” said Central New York Landowner’s Coalition President Brian Conover.
The 204,000 acre strong land group is in the midst of developing a strategy that, in Conover’s words, “would have a great influence” on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Governor Andrew Cuomo as they work to close out the comment period for the draft set of regs, called SGEIS. The DEC is beginning the public hearing phase of its most recent version of draft regs, and some say the agency could begin permitting companies to drill in New York next spring. A hearing is scheduled from 1 to 4 and from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Forum Theater in Binghamton.
Conover would not be more specific, but said coalition members would learn of the strategy shortly. The group is comprised of landowners from the surrounding counties, 140,000 acres of which lie in Chenango County. They were all encouraged to vote on Tuesday for the majority of candidates who called for safe drilling.
CNYL is currently marketing its 38-page lease to energy companies interested in developing natural gas resources from the Marcellus and Utica shales. Conover said the lease addresses all of the coalition’s environmental concerns.
“But the reality is that industry is going to wait until they know exactly what they are dealing with in our state,” he said.
When New York State Senator Tom Libous addressed a group of business and government leaders last month at the Eaton Center, he said the state is becoming friendlier to safe and responsible drilling. He suggested that downstate politicians who are blocking the jobs promised by the energy industry should rely on scientists and the DEC to keep New York’s drinking water safe.
Norse Energy Inc., the Norwegian company doing most of the natural gas development in Chenango County, was forced to suspend its drilling program in August due to the state’s now three-year permitting delay. The move is designed to preserve cash for potentially more profitable Marcellus and Utica Shale development in the future, company officials say.
Norse currently has 34 producing wells here, mostly in Smyrna and mostly drilled in the Herkimer Sandstone strata. The wells are connected to the Dominion transmission pipeline that cuts horizontally across upstate New York. Norse also has about 30 applications on record at the DEC for Chenango County wells that are in various stages of permitting and development. Some could be drilled and shut in or abandoned; none are producing.
The company also completed two applications that target the Utica Shale, one in Smyrna and one in Preston. A vertical well into the Marcellus Shale in Oxford is already drilled, but shut in, and waiting for the state to finish the SGEIS and for pipeline infrastructure to be built south to the Millennium Pipeline in Broome County.
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