GUILFORD – The site is about ready to go. Workers are just waiting for the rig to arrive.

“I wish I could tell you when to expect it. And will let you know just as soon as I do,” Gastem USA Vice President Richard Nyahay said earlier this week.

Nyahay was commenting on progress at the proposed natural gas well site, located on state Route 8 in the Town of Guilford just three miles up the road from Sidney. It will be the first gas well built in Guilford since 1970.

Future plans are to service nearby Amphenol Corp., downtown businesses and Sidney Central Schools with low-cost natural gas for fuel rather than oil. Once drilled, Nyahay said the well would be shut in until a pipeline, like the one being proposed by Leatherstocking Gas LLC., can be built south toward Sidney. (See sidebar)

In December, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued Gastem a drilling permit to access the Oneida formation, some 5,500 feet below the surface.

In light of the controversial nature of hydraulic fracturing, Nyahay has been up front and open about the processes and procedures surrounding the drilling of this well. It is a conventional, vertical well, not horizontal, and will be drilled with air, not large quantities of water mixed with sand and chemicals. Those factors distinguish it from the widely-publicized, horizontal, high volume fracking process needed to release gas deposits from shale.