Proposed Pittsburgh Permanent Drilling Ban May Not be Legal
Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, who will soon be leaving office, is staunchly anti-drilling. He led the successful effort to have hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling banned in the City of Pittsburgh. The ban was enacted by City Council last November. Now that Mr. Shields has landed on the happy shores of no drilling, he wants to burn the ships to ensure future Council members can’t undo all of his good work. His method? Amend the City’s Home Rule Charter to permanently ban drilling anywhere in the city limits.
Mr. Shields has proposed a measure be put on the ballot in November to let voters decide if the Charter should be amended. There’s just one small problem: It’s probably not legal.
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The quarterly reports from public companies continue to roll in, which sometimes makes for interesting reading. EXCO Resources, Inc. has just issued their quarterly report and includes the following operational update on their drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale. Of particular note is EXCO’s statement about IP, or “initial production”. IP for oil and gas wells is that initial burst of activity which is not sustainable through the life of the well. Usually a well produces the most right at the start—according to EXCO IP is a 24-hour period during the first few days a well goes online. But as EXCO points out below, their Marcellus wells sometimes don’t hit peak performance until a month or two after they have come online.
The leading and most visible organization representing the Marcellus drilling industry in Pennsylvania is the