Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Tioga County (PA)

Exxon Leases 19,400 Acres in Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale
March 31, 2009February 26, 2010

From a Reuters news story on the Financial 24 website:

Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded company, has leases on 19,400 acres in the Marcellus Shale, a formation that is said to hold vast amounts of natural gas.

In September, Exxon bid $85.2 million for 18 blocks in the Marcellus, a large shale formation that runs through parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, was the high bidder on six Marcellus blocks, paying a total of $22.4 million for acreage in Tioga and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania, company spokesman Patrick McGinn, said.

Read the full article: Exxon has 19,400 acres in the Marcellus shale
New York | Steuben County

Steuben County League of Women Voters Go on Record as Anti-Drilling in the Marcellus
March 31, 2009February 26, 2010

It seems anti-drilling groups, although small in numbers, are popping up like dandelions in the spring. The latest is the Steuben County League of Women Voters, a supposedly non-partisan group (but that’s a lie, LWV is an extremely partisan group). WENY-TV has video from a recent meeting held by the League. The meeting started with a propaganda movie about drilling in Colorado to whip up the crowd.

Read the account and watch the WENY segment: Steuben County League of Women Voters Holds Natural Gas Drilling Meeting
New York | Otsego County

Marcellus Anti-Drilling Protesters Assemble in Cooperstown Outside SPE Convention
March 31, 2009February 26, 2010

The Daily Star (Oneonta) reports that upward of 50 protesters from the Southern Tier and central New York gathered outside of Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown to voice their disapproval of drilling in the Marcellus. Inside the hotel was a meeting/convention of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

The Daily Star dutifully recounts the nightmarish (and inaccurate) party line of anti-drilling proponents. But to their credit, The Daily Star also reports a few counter arguments from a few people who are in the know and educated about these things–the engineers attending the SPE meeting whose job it is to safely get gas (and oil) from the ground.

Read the full article: 50 protest gas drilling at Otesaga