Posted on 12/04/2009 3:13:35 AM PST by markomalley
The first time Chesapeake Energy tried to buy mineral rights from Diana Whitmore, a 74-year-old retired real estate broker in southern New York, it offered her $125 for every acre of land plus a 12 percent royalty on whatever natural gas it extracts.
(snip)
This corner of the state is at the forefront of an old-fashioned land rush that has implications far beyond Conklin, N.Y. Oil and gas companies are vying to stake out territory where they can tap natural gas trapped in shale rock. Just a few years ago, the industry didn't have the technology to unlock these reserves. But thanks to advances in horizontal drilling and methods of fracturing rock with high-pressure blasts of water, sand and chemicals, vast gas reserves in the United States are suddenly within reach.
As a result, said BP chief executive Tony Hayward, "the picture has changed dramatically."
"The United States is sitting on over 100 years of gas supply at the current rates of consumption," he said. Because natural gas emits half the greenhouse gases of coal, he added, that "provides the United States with a unique opportunity to address concerns about energy security and climate change."
Recoverable U.S. gas reserves could now be bigger than the immense gas reserves of Russia, some experts say. The Marcellus shale formation, stretching across swaths of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia, has enough gas to meet the entire nation's needs for at least 14 years, according to an estimate by two Pennsylvania State University experts. Just in Broome County, N.Y., where Fitzsimmons lives, shale gas development could create $15 billion in economic activity, according to consultants hired by the county.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Also from the article:
But the prospect of widespread shale gas drilling is also driving wedges in the environmental community. Many environmentalists have sounded alarms about the chemicals that drillers use to fracture the rock and the danger of natural gas or other substances contaminating water supplies.
Of course, the EPA will not allow this to happen.
I wouldn't be too happy to live downstream: Water, chemicals, and sand are injected through the pipe into the surrounding shale, fracturing it.
If it's strong enough to fracture shale, what would it do to your body?
I believe it’s the high pressure at which the liquid is pumped into the shale that causes the fracture.
Your post is illustrative of the ignorance on this issue that plays right into the environmentalists' hands.
Nobody wants to live downwind of a refinery: but if you want gasoline, somebody's got to do so.
Nobody wants to live downwind of a slaughterhouse.
Nobody wants to live downwind of a pulp mill.
But most of us like eating meat and reading / writing on paper.
At 5,000-9,000 feet you won’t have to worry about it. I would think water wells rarely get this deep, if ever.
I would tell Cheapskate Energy what to do with their $125/acre offer.
Individual land owners who wait too long or demand too much could lose out. The oil/gas companies typically don’t need to have all the landowners sign on. It’s usually a very high percentage in the neighborhood of 90% but the law is designed to prevent a lone holdout from stopping drilling.
The $125/acre really isn't the important part -- that's just an upfront payment for inconvenience in case they have to scrap the project. The 12% royalty could add up in a hurry, though.
Home town in Pa. and let me tell you they are drilling left and right. Best thing that ever happened in that area. The town was like most Pa towns, getting old and haggard. Not any more.
Not only are they drilling there but the companies are spending their money there. They can’t keep up with the demand for housing so people are letting them park campers on their properties and woman are preparing meals for them daily, of course charging them, so the money is rolling in.
The downtown has started to look just fabulous again. It’s wonderful. And there are jobs galore..truckers..gas readers ..and if you’re not qualified..not to worry..they are training peoplel left and right. It’s a remarkable thing watching develope. My home town sits on one of the cores so they’ll be there for years to come.
They probably use high pressure, high temperature DiHYdrogen Monoxide. A VERY corrosive substance that is used in EVERY SINGLE nuclear plant in the country. Sadly, it is also in the drinking water of EVERY school in America. What should we do?
Oh BTW..The article speaks of New Yorkers holding out for more money. What they’re not telling you is because of that many of the Oil companies have left New york and come into Pa. If people get too demanding they just move on.
New Yorkers were forming groups of businesses to make unreasonable demands of the oil companies. As my brother said, you make your money not from the land but the revenues you’ll be getting from the extractions. He’s making plenty and so are the companies drilling on his properities..it’s a win win for all.
My brother is making moo-goo bucks on the gas revenues,.. as well off the the water lines which run thru his property. Your correct in the money is in the revenues..absolutely. Many in Pa. don’t understand how that works.
I live right in the middle of this area.
There is alot of controversy over the fracking -and claims of what it can do do the wells.
It doesn’t help that there’s been issues with one company somewhere around Susquehanna Pa.
I’m still trying to sift through the info and decipher what is fact and what is fiction.
It seems to me that the anti-fracking crowd is pointing to problems with an older method, while the companies are claiming they’ve moved onto something newer/better?
"current rates of consumption" is not a comforting phrase. Not, that is, if we run willy-nilly to converting power plants and cars/trucks to natural gas.
“If it’s strong enough to fracture shale, what would it do to your body? “
They are not doing anything to your body, they are doing it to rock 1 mile below the surface. And btw it is mainly water, CO2, and sand ... stuff that is already on the surface. Neither you nor your surface property are impacted.
The problem with this, from a leftist viewpoint, is that it provides our country and the citizenry with MORE energy from fossil fuels, and not less.
They really aren’t opposed to burning fossil fuels, per se, or about producing energy.
They just don’t want the masses to CONSUME more energy and live the good lifestyle afforded by consuming energy.
“They probably use high pressure, high temperature DiHYdrogen Monoxide. A VERY corrosive substance that is used in EVERY SINGLE nuclear plant in the country. Sadly, it is also in the drinking water of EVERY school in America. What should we do?”
DiHYdrogen Monoxide is also the #1 greenhouse gas.
It’s the main component of lead acid batteries.
Incredibly, people have backyard chemical experiments with the stuff, they actually ENJOY getting into this dangerous chemical, and that kills thousands per year through accidents.
If people are worried about this drilling, they need to remove this substance from their house. You can buy it in bottles, but they have NO WARNING LABELS!!
And now there are reports we will get 1/2 inch of this substance in solid form blanketing our town today, and the EPA is not even coming to clean it up, we are ‘on our own’ without proper bio hazard suits ... a complete SNOW JOB!
ROFL, good job ;)
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