Outlook bleak for immediate future of gas drilling here, county committee says
NORWICH – With a worldwide glut of natural gas on the marketplace, prices just above $2.30 per MMBtu and accumulating investigations of environmental contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing, the future of Marcellus Shale drilling in New York State appears bleak.
Whether the Department of Environmental Conservation Agency lays out the ground rules for developing the state’s abundant supply of shale gas this year, next year or sometime after that is anyone’s guess.
Thus was the sentiment expressed at the first meeting of the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee for 2012. And, after four years of gathering monthly to prepare citizens for large scale Marcellus Shale drilling here, the decision was made to meet less often.
“Although there are hundreds of thousands of acres leased, I don’t think we’re going to see any drilling in New York State in the short term,” said committee President Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, on Tuesday. “The political will or courage to make a law is not going to happen.”
Chenango County Natural Gas Consultant Steven Palmatier, who has hired to develop business and job opportunities within the industry, was also reluctant to estimate a time for the state’s DEC to complete its permitting regulations, called SGEIS. The agency is currently sifting through more than 40,000 comments received on 1,500 pages of the draft plan, and awaiting a report from a panel charged with identifying the costs of shale drilling on agencies and local governments.
“I’m not throwing any date out,” said Palmatier. “It was going to be 2009, then definitely August 2010. It was 2011 and now we’re well into 2012.”
Cornell Cooperative Extension Director Ken Smith said even if hydraulic fracturing were permitted in 2012, he anticipated ensuing lawsuits involving municipalities, industry and landowners for at least a year and, depending on the price of gas, no drilling until possibly 2013 or 2014.
“It looks now like the rate of development here will never be like in Bradford County,” he said, referring to the township just over the Broome County border with Pennsylvania, where widespread shale drilling has occurred. A year ago, Smith and other members of the committee traveled to Bradford County and met with officials there in order to glean first hand experience with the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling.
The committee agreed to meet bi-monthly. Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers requested that the county Planning and Development Department prepare a comprehensive checklist for citizens and townships to know where industry might locate compressor stations and pipelines in the future, and where to obtain maps, noise ordinances, road use agreements, training programs and other resources.
The committee was formed four years ago after geologists released eye-opening estimates of the value of the gas deposits contained within the Southern Tier’s Marcellus Shale fairway, which includes southern portions of Chenango County. At the time, the natural gas contained within sandstone - particularly the towns of Otselic and Smyrna along county Road 16 - was being targeted by a Norwegian energy company that went by the name of Nornew, and later Norse Energy. From 2006-2011, Norse leased landowners’ land, prepared well sites, drilled more than 30 wells, and buried gathering lines and pipeline.
Norse eventually planned to partner with a larger energy company to fracture the Marcellus and Utica shales for gas, but ceased operations in August for financial reasons. According to Chenango County Real Property Services, gross receipts generated by Norse Energy in the tri-county (Madison, Chenango and Broome) region during 2011 were valued at $1.2 million.
In early 2008, members of the Public Works Committee began asking questions about the county’s issuance of right-of-way permits to seismic testing companies and road boring permits to Norse. Later, supervisors questioned whether the planning department should be charging more for maps, and if staff could handle the deluge of leasing-related calls from landowners and companies.
After a landowner threatened to sue the county for granting a seismic testing company the right-of-way to go onto his land and supervisors complained that the county’s attorney had entered into a compulsory integration agreement without prior scrutiny, then-Board Chairman Richard B. Decker asked Flanagan to form an advisory committee.
The committee has sponsored a series of geologists, hydrologists, lawyers, property tax consultants and emergency management responders to educate themselves. It created a website at the planning department where municipalities could learn about the possibility of environmental contamination, road damages, wastewater disposal problems and freshwater demands; as well as prepare for the onslaught of workers, drilling-related business and services jobs, and the need for training and housing.
The price of natural gas was $14 per MMBtu when the committee was formed.
Whether the Department of Environmental Conservation Agency lays out the ground rules for developing the state’s abundant supply of shale gas this year, next year or sometime after that is anyone’s guess.
Thus was the sentiment expressed at the first meeting of the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee for 2012. And, after four years of gathering monthly to prepare citizens for large scale Marcellus Shale drilling here, the decision was made to meet less often.
“Although there are hundreds of thousands of acres leased, I don’t think we’re going to see any drilling in New York State in the short term,” said committee President Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, on Tuesday. “The political will or courage to make a law is not going to happen.”
Chenango County Natural Gas Consultant Steven Palmatier, who has hired to develop business and job opportunities within the industry, was also reluctant to estimate a time for the state’s DEC to complete its permitting regulations, called SGEIS. The agency is currently sifting through more than 40,000 comments received on 1,500 pages of the draft plan, and awaiting a report from a panel charged with identifying the costs of shale drilling on agencies and local governments.
“I’m not throwing any date out,” said Palmatier. “It was going to be 2009, then definitely August 2010. It was 2011 and now we’re well into 2012.”
Cornell Cooperative Extension Director Ken Smith said even if hydraulic fracturing were permitted in 2012, he anticipated ensuing lawsuits involving municipalities, industry and landowners for at least a year and, depending on the price of gas, no drilling until possibly 2013 or 2014.
“It looks now like the rate of development here will never be like in Bradford County,” he said, referring to the township just over the Broome County border with Pennsylvania, where widespread shale drilling has occurred. A year ago, Smith and other members of the committee traveled to Bradford County and met with officials there in order to glean first hand experience with the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling.
The committee agreed to meet bi-monthly. Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers requested that the county Planning and Development Department prepare a comprehensive checklist for citizens and townships to know where industry might locate compressor stations and pipelines in the future, and where to obtain maps, noise ordinances, road use agreements, training programs and other resources.
The committee was formed four years ago after geologists released eye-opening estimates of the value of the gas deposits contained within the Southern Tier’s Marcellus Shale fairway, which includes southern portions of Chenango County. At the time, the natural gas contained within sandstone - particularly the towns of Otselic and Smyrna along county Road 16 - was being targeted by a Norwegian energy company that went by the name of Nornew, and later Norse Energy. From 2006-2011, Norse leased landowners’ land, prepared well sites, drilled more than 30 wells, and buried gathering lines and pipeline.
Norse eventually planned to partner with a larger energy company to fracture the Marcellus and Utica shales for gas, but ceased operations in August for financial reasons. According to Chenango County Real Property Services, gross receipts generated by Norse Energy in the tri-county (Madison, Chenango and Broome) region during 2011 were valued at $1.2 million.
In early 2008, members of the Public Works Committee began asking questions about the county’s issuance of right-of-way permits to seismic testing companies and road boring permits to Norse. Later, supervisors questioned whether the planning department should be charging more for maps, and if staff could handle the deluge of leasing-related calls from landowners and companies.
After a landowner threatened to sue the county for granting a seismic testing company the right-of-way to go onto his land and supervisors complained that the county’s attorney had entered into a compulsory integration agreement without prior scrutiny, then-Board Chairman Richard B. Decker asked Flanagan to form an advisory committee.
The committee has sponsored a series of geologists, hydrologists, lawyers, property tax consultants and emergency management responders to educate themselves. It created a website at the planning department where municipalities could learn about the possibility of environmental contamination, road damages, wastewater disposal problems and freshwater demands; as well as prepare for the onslaught of workers, drilling-related business and services jobs, and the need for training and housing.
The price of natural gas was $14 per MMBtu when the committee was formed.
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