What to Expect When Your Wells are Fracked
on February 11th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
I said I wasn't going to post much on this anymore, but this article strikes me as helpful. Consider who wrote it and why, and assume that everything in it is probably understatement. At least, that's my suspicion.
Disclaimer: This article focuses on the changing sights and sounds you and your neighbors may experience once natural gas exploration, development, and production begins on your land. It is not intended to discuss the political, environmental, or legal aspects of the decision, or to consider your contract in depth.
Most landowners leasing land for Marcellus natural gas development are inexperienced with drilling and industrial-scale operations, leading to misunderstandings of even well-intentioned information. One family in Bradford, PA, for example, was told that they’d see a “house-sized propane tank” from their house. The father said, “We thought they meant like a residential tank, not one the size of a house.”
However, when an engineer who works with industrial heating and cooling equipment heard this story, he thought the company’s description was clear. Air conditioning units the size of small school buses are common in his line of work; he connected immediately with the scale of the equipment. Most people, however, think air conditioners fit in the living room window — our sense of scale doesn’t match industrial-sized equipment, and so some people may feel they misunderstand what operators tell them.
This article offers an accessible description of what landowners experience at different stages during the process of drilling into the Marcellus Shale layer. Most of the factual information in this article was provided by either Brad Gill, director of Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGANY) [2] or by Mark Scheuerman, director of government and media relations for Talisman Energy, a prime player in Marcellus Shale development in New York and Pennsylvania, unless otherwise indicated. More.
