Companies keep drilling for natural gas in East

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Illuminated drilling rigs glow for miles from atop flattened hills when night falls in this rolling farm and coal country in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Tanker trucks back up traffic on two-lane roads, and Texans wearing heavy coats and muddy boots fill Shelley’s Pike Diner at lunch as land owners hope royalty checks will make them rich.

The deteriorating economy and a drop in natural gas prices has slowed a rush to snap up mineral rights to the thick, black rock called Marcellus shale, which stretches deep underground from West Virginia to New York state and could become the nation’s most prolific natural gas reservoir

So far, no more than several dozen wells have been hooked up to pipelines that carry the gas to customers, said Penn State University geoscientist Terry Engelder.

But that number could climb into the hundreds within a year, as companies extend pipelines and hook up the more than 400 wells that officials in West Virginia and Pennsylvania say are completed or almost complete.

Exploration of Marcellus shale is in the early stages as companies work to identify the best drilling prospects. It could be five or 10 years until production is fully engaged because there is a relative dearth of gas pipelines, rigs and trained workers in Appalachia to support the deeper, horizontal wells needed to extract gas from shale

AP