New York

From Wikimarcellus

The State of New York has been the home of roughly 75,000 oil, salt, and natural gas wells since the 1800s. More than 13,500 of these were active during 2008 producing more than 50 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, the fourth highest total in state history. These wells are concentrated in Western New York and the Southern Tier. Much recent attention has focused on drilling in the Marcellus shale formation which is prevalent in the south-central part of the state. However, as of July, 2009 new drilling continued to be on hold while the NY DEC assessed the environmental impacts of hydro-fracturing and prepared a draft supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (sGEIS).

• Update #1: The draft sGEIS was available and open for public comment up until December 31, 2009.
• Update #2: As of July, 2010 DEC continued to evaluate the 14,000 comments received on the draft sGEIS and conduct additional research. The final sGEIS was still pending as of July.
• Update #3: Production declined somewhat during 2009--down 11%--to 44.85 Bcf from the 50 Bcf produced the previous year. This is still the sixth highest flow ever.

Another major shale formation in New York is the Utica shale.

The prospective area in the State for the Utica and Marcellus shale formations roughly is the region reaching from Chautauqua County eastward to Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties. as well as Broome County, home of Binghampton, NY.

Drilling in the Trenton-Black River (TBR) formation has actually been the most prolific source of gas in the state since the 1990s, particularly in the Finger Lakes region. Around 100 TBR wells produced somewhere over 35 BCF of natural gas during 2008--well over half of the gas produced in New York State that year. It represented 60% of 2009 production with 98 wells productive. One in particular, the Nowlan well in the town of Erin, Chemung County produced 2.49 Bcf alone during 2009. However, overall TBR production declined 22% in the State.

The most productive counties for natural gas in the State during 2009 were:

• First place -- Chemung
• Second place -- Steuben
• Third place -- Chautauqua

 Top 10 NY Gas-producing counties in 2009
(in cubic feet)
1. Chemung 13,890,161,000
2. Steuben 12,320,765,000
3. Chautauqua 6,473,408,000
4. Erie 2,364,862,000
5. Cattaraugus 1,615,243,000
6. Chenango 1,599,381,000
7. Seneca 1,450,148,000
8. Cayuga 1,068,846,000
9. Madison 951,077,000
10. Schuyler 816,884,000
Statewide total | 44,848,895,000
Source: DEC

The pattern was similar the previous year (note that 2008 volumes are expressed in Mcf - 1,000 cf):

Gas Activity in the Top Ten Gas Counties (2008) 
                 	          Gas 	            Active
                 	         (Mcf) 	           Gas Wells
                 Steuben 	17146368 	      69
                 Chemung 	15626276 	      43
                 Chautauqua 	 6758069 	    3438
                 Erie 	         1961665 	     961
                 Seneca 	 1606948 	     214
                 Cattaraugus 	 1593604 	     528
                 Schuyler 	 1060947 	      18
                 Tioga 	         1038093 	       1
                 Cayuga 	  838287 	     291
                 Genesee 	  767032 	     519
(Source: 2008 Annual Report of the Division of Mineral Resources, DEC)