Представитель отрасли доказывает, что добыча газа в округе Лайкоминг безопасна и экономически эффективна

Trending Their jobs entail heading out into the rural areas of Lycoming County, driving trucks with water and equipment on them as they extract natural gas (methane) from deep within the Marcellus Shale. But these natural gas workers also coach and have sons and daughters who play on area Little League teams. They shop at local stores, dine at restaurants and watch as their own children -- student athletes, academics, musicians and artists -- graduate from local high schools to go onto college and their chosen career paths. "I think it's very important to understand that our employees in this industry live in the very communities in which they work," said James D. Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, (MSC) in Pittsburgh, during a recent visit to Williamsport. It is why the natural gas industry operators have every reason to be sure that exploration and extraction of gas is done in the most efficient and most environmentally safe manner, he noted in an interview with the Sun-Gazette. Methane Intensity A great example of that efficiency and environmental sensitivity in this extraction process is measured by how much "methane is lost," Welty said. Methane, which is the very product sold, is natural gas or the chemical component – CH4. "We have every incentive to be capturing that because every molecule of methane out is a dollar bill that we are not receiving," Welty told the Sun-Gazette news team. In point of fact, the Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania, specifically, has one of the lowest methane intensity ratings, which is the measure of how much methane is lost in the process. Today, the United States has one of the lowest methane intensities in the world. "If you just think of it from the fact that natural gas is the very product we're trying to sell, we have every incentive to be keeping it in that pipeline and keeping it in the process so that we can get more money for the buyer," Welty said. The Appalachian basin, itself, has the lowest methane intensity of any major producing basin in the nation, Welty affirmed. It means when operators are producing gas out of the ground in Pennsylvania they're doing it more cleanly than anywhere else in the world. "That's something to be proud of and it's an example of the commitment that our operators have to do this in an environmentally friendly manner," Welty said. Water usage and safety When it comes to the issue of water, wastewater, MSC operators "got together and said, 'We've got to find a way where we can do this in a more efficient manner and reuse our wastewater,'" Welty said. Some 93% of the water used is reused water. The drilling operations are not going out and getting fresh water, but rather reprocessing that water and moving around. Every drop of water does not go into an injection site, it is getting repurposed and that's another example of where the industry and organization is committed to finding the most efficient, environmentally friendly manner to operate, according to Welty. Those are stories that MSC has been trying to tell and find new ways to tell them. Lowest methane intensity and reuse of water are metrics with which the organization prides itself. Notably, water protection remains one of the most heavily regulated aspects of natural gas development, he said. Pennsylvania operators follow strict requirements governing well construction, water management, waste handling, transportation, and disposal. Moreover, recent data from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reinforces the effectiveness of these safeguards. A comprehensive statewide study examining landfill leachate found no evidence that oil and gas waste poses a radiation risk to public health. Researchers also found no correlation between elevated radium levels and landfills that accept oil and gas waste, according to MSC material. In fact, landfills that received at least 10 tons of oil and gas waste over the past decade showed radium results less than one-fifth of those that do not accept oil and gas waste. Increased truck traffic When the Sun-Gazette mentioned that there has been more truck traffic – asking whether it is Haliburton or sand trucks, or water tankers or large drilling rigs with machinery attached – Welty said he could understand what he considered to be a "great question." He answered it with production statistics. "We produce enough gas out of Lycoming County to heat about 6 million homes for an entire year," he said smiling. "To put that number in perspective, that's more than all the homes of Pennsylvania combined." The gas coming out of the ground in this county could heat more than all the homes in Pennsylvania. If one looks at the activity across the Commonwealth, last year, operators produced 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas, making Pennsylvania the second largest natural gas producer in the country behind Texas. "That is enough gas to fuel nearly all the homes in the country," Welty said, adding that there also has been about or slightly more than 5 % growth from the previous year. "We anticipate that growth to continue – if all things hold steady for the second half of 2026 – and that we will continue to see growth in the market going into 2027." Lycoming County is a perfect model to demonstrate what is happening across the state, because when growth is at 5.5%, what "we're seeing here is going to mirror what we're seeing statewide." Advancements in technology In 2008, operators were lucky to drill one mile in a lateral well, adding how he just read that ETT in West Virginia did a five mile lateral," Welty said. In fact, Range Resources is doing four mile laterals, he remarked. "We're going out much further, which costs more on the front end when you look at it from a business perspective but the yield on the gas return is much better for our operators," he explained. "We can increase production that way with less impact on the environment, because it's still the same footprint on the top of the surface but it's a mile down and then we're going out for four miles," he added. "We go down a mile and out four miles," he said. It means there's less impact and getting more return for the gas. Additionally, the industry is using less rigs to drill more wells because operators are going out farther. Moreover, there have been changes in legislation. This is in terms of allowing one unit and another unit leased. Before this legislation, operators couldn't cross the lateral into separate units even though they were leased. "We'd have to go to that unit and put on another well pad," Welty said. Now, with the changes in the legislation operators can go through both units, all of the royalty owners are still made whole because they're receiving royalties for that. But, there is no surface impact because of going across. Additionally, more wells can go on the well pad. In 2008, the average well pad was 5 acres. "I think it's still safe to say the average well pad is five acres, but we have a five-acre well pad that we were able to drill six wells on ... now we might do a seven acre well pad and drill 12 wells on it," Welty observed. "You are getting more return because we have the technology and the ability to drill more wells from an existing well pad than we did in 2008," he said.