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First Marcellus Shale natural gas well drilled in Lackawanna County
Published: December 2, 2009
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share thisA Pittsburgh-area subsidiary of a Texas-based natural gas operator has drilled the first Marcellus Shale well in Lackawanna County in Greenfield Twp.
Exco Resources (PA) Inc., formerly Exco-North Coast Energy Resources Inc., is studying shale samples from the well, named Skyline Golf Course Unit 6V, located east of Route 247 in the township.
Exco Resources (PA) President Wendy Straatmann said the company hopes to use the information it gleans from the rock - laboratory work that could take months, she said - to help determine the viability of the well and Exco's wider drilling program in the area. The company will use the sample as a snapshot of the natural gas that is in place in the shale as well as how much of that gas is recoverable.
"These are very expensive wells," she said, "so before we spend millions of dollars we need to have some of the answers."
The company began drilling the well on Sept. 28, and continued drilling into October.
Straatman said she could not say when or if the well will be hydraulically fractured - the process of using large quantities of water, sand and chemicals to break apart the shale that is necessary to release and harvest the gas trapped in the rock. She also could not predict how long it will be until more wells are drilled in the company's expansive lease-hold in the county.
The Skyline well was drilled adjacent to the Skyline Public Golf Course, which was part of 25,000 acres leased to Exco by a coalition of landowners in northern Lackawanna and southeastern Susquehanna counties in 2008.
Exco has permits with the Department of Environmental Protection to drill 27 wells in Lackawanna County, including two horizontal wells that are permitted for the same two- to five-acre well pad where the first Skyline well was drilled.
It also has approval from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw up to 91,000 gallons of water a day from the South Branch of Tunkhannock Creek in Benton Twp. to use for hydraulically fracturing its wells. It has approval to draw water from several other sites in Wyoming and Susquehanna counties.
The company has drilled four other Marcellus Shale wells in the state this year, including one just north of Lackawanna County in Clifford Twp. in July.
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