Employment Opportunities In The Gas Drilling Industry

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Two Sessions: 2:00-3:30 and 6:00-7:30PM
Hubbard Auditorium
56 Main St. Owego, N.Y.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County, and the Tioga Employment Center will present an informational session on employment opportunities in the gas drilling industry.
Information covered will include, companies hiring, the types of jobs available, and how to apply and contact employers.
To register call Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County
at 687-4020 Space is Limited

Jobs and Economic Boost

The Perryman Group, an economic analysis firm based in Waco, estimated in a 2009 study that the Barnett Shale in North Texas will create about 108,000 jobs annually until 2015.

The same study found that in 2008 Barnett Shale activity was responsible for an estimated $13.7 billion in annual output and 132,497 jobs.

Partnerships and Pipelines

It started in 2008, when Chesapeake sold 32.5 % of its holdings in the Marcellus Shale to Statoil Hydro for $3.375 billion. Since then, there has been increasing interest in partnerships to develop the vast potential of the Marcellus, as the following datelines suggest. Of course, very little of this Marcellus activity is currently geared toward New York State, thanks to the governor’s drawn-out moratorium on horizontal drilling.

4/12/2010 - Source: Reliance to spend $1.7B for Marcellus Shale joint project
3/29/2010 - Statoil pays $253M to purchase more Marcellus Shale assets
3/25/10 - Enbridge seeks to construct pipeline from Marcellus to Chicago
3/22/10 - Chesapeake chief eyes more joint ventures for shale-gas properties
3/16/10 - Penn Virginia Resource to invest in Marcellus Shale pipelines
3/11/10 - EXCO Resources considering venture partners in Marcellus Shale
2/16/10 - Anadarko announces joint venture with Mitsui in Marcellus Shale
12/14/09 - Exxon to buy XTO and Marcellus Shale holdings in $41 billion deal

Exco & IP To Recycle Waste Water

Many environmentalists worry about where the large amounts of water needed to drill and frac a well will come from. Exco Resources, Inc., an energy company currently drilling in Louisiana, has recently partnered with International Paper to help solve this problem.

International Paper, who has been treating and dumping (legally) an estimated 12 million gallons of treated process water per day into the nearby Red River, will now supply Exco with all the water it needs for the drilling and fracing process. Apparently, a trial run has been completed by Exco and the water proved suitable for it’s new use. An estimated 4.2 billion gallons will be available for Exco, enough to drill and complete 700 wells.

We think there are opportunities of this sort in our own area and ... did you ever notice the Susquehanna River during those spring rains?

Natural Gas In Water Wells

After some gas wells were drilled in Dimock, PA, natural gas was found in the water wells of a few nearby homes. As usual, the anti-drilling crowd made a major production of it, igniting the water coming out of the kitchen faucets and featuring the story and videos on their anti-drilling web sites. But according to professional WATER WELL drillers, this is nothing new and, in certain geographic locations, it happens even where drilling has NOT occurred.

We recently found an interesting article on the pagaslease.com web site that attributes the following quotes to an article in the Hancock Herald. Below are excerpts from the article.

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"Local Water Well Driller offers insight into Marcellus shale drilling Process"
2-10-2010 by Sally Zegers

"Francis Tully of Poyntelle, Pa., a well driller for most of his life, weighed in recently on drilling for natural gas in the area, based on what he calls the science of the drilling process. The Tully Drilling Company was started in 1928, by his father, Ben Tully."

" Tully Drilling was a major and well respected business in Wayne County for several decades, serving farmers and small business people across the area. Over the years, according to Francis Tully, the company drilled 10,000 wells across several counties and two states, and he still has the files to prove it."

"He says the phenomenon of "fracture zone seepage" is relatively common in Susquehanna and Wayne Counties and drillers often found natural gas while drilling for water. The internet features several videos of people "flaring" matches at water faucets in Susquehanna County, which is cited as evidence that gas drilling is damaging private water wells. However, drillers fifty years ago often found that they could flare matches at the faucets. According to Francis Tully, near Clifford, in Susquehanna County, "nearly every well in the area" has natural gas."

"According to Francis Tully, the photographs he’s seen of the (water) well that blew up in Dimock, Pa. on New Year’s Day 2009 lead him to believe that the (water) tank itself blew up. He believes the (pressure) switch froze in the on position, and it couldn’t switch off, allowing pressure to build and build until the tank blew apart. "Tanks do blow up," he says, noting that he’s seen it happen many times over the 60 plus years he was in the business. According to him, one tank came up through the floor of a living room, hit the ceiling and ended up on the divan. "

"He believes drilling for natural gas should be "perfectly safe" as long the drillers use three layers of pipe, using surface casing down to 1,000 feet, then drilling 7,600 feet to the Marcellus Shale. Then you case it again and grout it. The level at which water is found is relatively shallow. Drillers will bore through it with boreholes encased in steel and concrete, to protect the water supply, Tully points out. The Marcellus Shale is more than a mile underground. The different levels of rock and shale in the earth are like "pages in a book," he says. He points out that the layers of rock protect the water in the upper level. Fracturing, something water drillers have done for years with dynamite, only fractures the rock close to the well, not the thousands of feet above it.
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EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Landowner Coalitions: Emerging Opportunities for Grassroots
Organizing Around Natural Gas Leasing
Dryden Fire Hall North Street in Dryden
Saturday, March 13, 2010 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Featuring Nick Schoonover, Chair of the Tioga County Landowners Group. in conjunction with CCE-Tompins.
Come learn about:
What brought the Tioga landowners together initially
How they developed their organization
What services they offer their membership
Click here for the informational flyer

SUPPORT NATURAL GAS EXPLORATION IN NY!

This is an easy way to show your support for Safe and Responsible
Natural Gas Exploration and Development in NYS

Sign the online petition here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/YESngNY/petition.html

Mineral Rights Forum

We have added this website to our list of Helpful Websites, it is a national forum for oil and gas mineral rights owners (as opposed to several play specific sites we’ve observed). The site is built on a platform that allows users to share photos and videos, create blog posts, and experience a social aspect with other mineral owners. The forum features four different categories for discussion: General Mineral Rights, Natural Gas Shale Plays, Oil and Gas Leasing Help Group, Mineral Rights Tax Issues.

NY Marcellus Shale Statewide Summit

Monday, Nov. 30, 2009, at the Owego Treadway Inn.

The Marcellus Shale Team, a core group of Cornell faculty and staff, is researching expected impacts of natural gas exploration in the region, as well as possible mitigation strategies.
CCE will also continue to promote cross-collaboration of outreach and
education among the educational and research institutions throughout the
Marcellus Shale region.

Cornell Cooperative Extension : Gas Leasing and Exploration

CCE has created a website devoted to this topic. The CCE Natural Gas Development Resource Center can be found at, http://gasleasing.cce.cornell.edu/

Public sessions on Marcellus Shale exploration

CCE will host a series of public meetings across New York's Southern Tier during July and August to educate residents about issues associated with the development of natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale.

CCE has organized a Marcellus Shale Team comprised of Cornell faculty and extension educators to provide targeted education, training, and support to a variety of stakeholders, ranging from local officials to individual landowners to concerned citizens. The CCE "road show" will bring Cornell educators to local communities to cover environmental,
community and economic development, regulatory, and leasing issues related to natural gas drilling.

The meetings, co-sponsored by CCE Association offices, will occur from 7-9 p.m. Residents should contact their local CCE Association for more details. The tentative schedule is as follows:

Grace United Methodist Church in Corning (Steuben County), July 16;

Chenango Town Hall (Broome County), July 22 - call 607-584-9966 to register

Waverly (Tioga County), July 28; Waverly High School - call CCE Tioga
at 607-687-4020 to register

Watkins Glen (Schuyler County), Aug. 5;

Liberty (Sullivan County), Aug. 17

"Intensive natural gas development in other states has, in recent years, been accompanied by substantial changes in established trends in population, land use, environment, community, and economy," said Rod Howe, assistant director for Cornell Cooperative Extension and one of the road show facilitators. "These changes have the potential to
transform the fabric of many-especially rural-communities in New York in
ways that are both positive and negative."

Howe added that examining the ramifications of natural gas drilling at the outset "makes it more likely that negative impacts will be minimized and positive aspects realized."

CCE’s upcoming events:

2009 A Primer for Natural Gas Taxation Issues Applicable to NYS Landowners

Introduces tax practitioners to the income tax rules pertaining to landowners involved in leasing for natural gas drilling in NYS.

Brochure and Registration Form, go to:
http://agfinance.aem.cornell.edu:80/Primer%20for%20Natural%20Gasschool.htmlDATES &

LOCATIONS:

August 24, 2009, Batavia, NY at the Batavia Party House
August 26, 2009, Liberty, NY at Cornell Cooperative Extension, Sullivan County
August 27, 2009, Owego, NY at the Owego Treadway Inn

This seminar will introduce tax practitioners to the income tax rules pertaining to landowners involved in leasing for natural gas drilling in New York State. It will provide a comprehensive background on the exploration, drilling and production processes, lease arrangements, and
the current leasing situation for New York State landowners. Specific coverage will include lease payments and pertinent lease clauses, depletion rules, royalty and working interests, miscellaneous income items, forced pooling, Federal income tax legislation and regulations,
application of AMT, special NYS tax issues, industry terminology, available research resources, and suggested practices for your firm.

Speakers: James E. Leonard, CPA, PLLC, Endicott NY;

Joseph A. Bennett, CPA, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell.

New York Marcellus Shale Summit Monday, Nov. 30, 2009, at the Owego Treadway Inn.

The Marcellus Shale Team, a core group of Cornell faculty and staff, is researching expected impacts of natural gas exploration in the region, as well as possible mitigation strategies.

CCE will also continue to promote cross-collaboration of outreach and
education among the educational and research institutions throughout the
Marcellus Shale region.