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Pointing to a map of Wayne County, Eugene Linscomb, Thursday night, showed the hundreds of people attending the WEDCO Annual Dinner meeting how the hope and dreams of natural gas exploration has painted almost the whole northern half.
Linscomb, Business Manager for Hess Corporation and working out of their Honesdale Office, noted that between Hess and their partner company Newfield Exploration Company, have leases for almost 126,427 acres in northern Wayne County. More leases are being negotiated or contemplated.
They have a joint operating agreement with Newfield, where they split the revenue evenly. Newfield will do the actual drilling work on this section, which includes much of Damascus, Lebanon and Manchester townships. Hess/Newfield has a joint lease agreement with the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.
Hess and Newfield operate together on 54,000 gross acres. Hess/Newfield has a joint lease agreement with the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.
Hess has full responsibility leased properties, covering most of Scott, Buckingham and Preston townships. Hess’s acreage within that area is about 46,000 acres with Newfield having leases for approximately 10, 000 acres. These include a joint lease with another citizen group, the Susquehanna Wayne Oil & Gas Group.
The map graphically displayed that Hess/Newfield is the majority player in Wayne county. Lesser areas of northern Wayne are leased byas many as seven other gas companies.
Community responsibility was stressed by Linscomb. Hess, he said, is based in New York and has refining operations in New Jersey. “This [Wayne County] is our backyard. We want to do things right,” he stated.
“We’re here for the long term; we don’t plan on going anywhere,” the Texas native shared.
He said that they are working hard to establish a community relationship that is a “win-win” for everyone.
So far they have not applied for any permits to drill an operating well. Hess has identified about 14 possible sites and out of that expect to seek permits for approximately five exploratory wells in the Scott/Preston/Buckingham region of northern Wayne this summer.
Newfield has already applied for permits to do five exploratory wells in their region of Northern Wayne.
He explained that Susquehanna County and areas west are proven fields for extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale, but the geology differs in Wayne County. The Marcellus Shale is deeper here. Hess needs to conduct this exploration before filing for permits for actual well production.
The exploratory wells will be only vertical shafts, drilled wiith forced air as opposed to a water and sand mixture.
Pointing to a map of Wayne County, Eugene Linscomb, Thursday night, showed the hundreds of people attending the WEDCO Annual Dinner meeting how the hope and dreams of natural gas exploration has painted almost the whole northern half.
Linscomb, Business Manager for Hess Corporation and working out of their Honesdale Office, noted that between Hess and their partner company Newfield Exploration Company, have leases for almost 126,427 acres in northern Wayne County. More leases are being negotiated or contemplated.
They have a joint operating agreement with Newfield, where they split the revenue evenly. Newfield will do the actual drilling work on this section, which includes much of Damascus, Lebanon and Manchester townships. Hess/Newfield has a joint lease agreement with the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.
Hess and Newfield operate together on 54,000 gross acres. Hess/Newfield has a joint lease agreement with the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.
Hess has full responsibility leased properties, covering most of Scott, Buckingham and Preston townships. Hess’s acreage within that area is about 46,000 acres with Newfield having leases for approximately 10, 000 acres. These include a joint lease with another citizen group, the Susquehanna Wayne Oil & Gas Group.
The map graphically displayed that Hess/Newfield is the majority player in Wayne county. Lesser areas of northern Wayne are leased byas many as seven other gas companies.
Community responsibility was stressed by Linscomb. Hess, he said, is based in New York and has refining operations in New Jersey. “This [Wayne County] is our backyard. We want to do things right,” he stated.
“We’re here for the long term; we don’t plan on going anywhere,” the Texas native shared.
He said that they are working hard to establish a community relationship that is a “win-win” for everyone.
So far they have not applied for any permits to drill an operating well. Hess has identified about 14 possible sites and out of that expect to seek permits for approximately five exploratory wells in the Scott/Preston/Buckingham region of northern Wayne this summer.
Newfield has already applied for permits to do five exploratory wells in their region of Northern Wayne.
He explained that Susquehanna County and areas west are proven fields for extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale, but the geology differs in Wayne County. The Marcellus Shale is deeper here. Hess needs to conduct this exploration before filing for permits for actual well production.
The exploratory wells will be only vertical shafts, drilled wiith forced air as opposed to a water and sand mixture.
Linscomb said in an interview afterwards that once a viable well is found, they anticipate seeking permits to conduct hydraulic, horizontal fracking. They may apply for a permit for fracking as early as late 2010 or early 2011, likely first in the portion of Wayne County within the Suquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), said Linscomb. This area includes a large part of Scott Township, Starrucca Borough and a small part of Preston Township.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a second version to the story, correcting certain points regarding the joint operation of Hess and Newfield, and plans by Hess to seek permits for hydraulic fracking once a viable well is identified.]
