CURBING GAS PRICES

By ELISE FRANCO

Ohio’s wells benefit residents

YOUNGSTOWN — Ohioans worried about the spiking cost of natural gas might find some relief close to home.

Very close, as in the backyard.

Tom Stewart, executive vice president of Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said natural-gas prices should begin to moderate in the next 18 to 24 months — thanks to Ohio wells.

“Even though a well may not be on your property, the fact that a well or group of wells has been developed somewhere in the state of Ohio benefits everyone,” he said. “Gas produced in-state leads to less volatility, more reliability, and it helps to mitigate prices across the board for Ohio citizens.”

This means that in the coldest months of the year, when oil and gas are in the highest demand, prices will not rise as drastically for Ohio consumers because the resources are being pumped in-state, Stewart said.

Every little bit could help as the price of natural gas is already up 74 percent since last year, according to Dominion East Ohio.

“In larger cities that don’t have natural-gas wells — Chicago, for example — cash daily prices spike $20 to $60 per TCF [thousand cubic feet] of gas,” Stewart explained. “That doesn’t happen in Ohio because of the wells tied into the local distribution system. It’s like having a backup you can dip into during peak periods.”

Of the 63,654 active wells in Ohio, about 2,200 are in Mahoning County, about 2,400 are in Trumbull County and about 1,900 are in Columbiana County, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. A 2007 summary of Ohio oil and gas activities shows the drilling trend continues to grow.

Last year, 99 new wells were drilled in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties combined, and this year drilling is on pace to surpass that amount. Mahoning County was also ranked as the 10th most-active county for drilling in the state, up eight spots from 2006, according to the report.

“I’d say there has been an increased demand for local wells,” Stewart said. “Landowners can read the newspaper, and they see the commodity prices. Drilling activity is amped up.”

With the rise in production and drilling, however, comes some concern that the abundance of wells will cause a decrease in maintenance.

In May, a concerned Youngstown man took Carl Roberts, Mahoning County mineral resource inspector for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, to a well located across from Cardinal Mooney High School.

Roberts said the resident raised concerns that many of the standards and safety regulations were not being met.

“I saw that the fence and the ID sign were missing,” he said.

Roberts said Everflow Eastern Inc., the Canfield-based operating company, was contacted immediately and informed of the needed repairs and replacements at the site. “I went back to inspect one week later, on May 27, and everything was [replaced],” Roberts said.

In total, the fence at that particular site has been replaced six times, he said, and there’s no way of knowing how long the fence had been down before it was brought to Roberts’ attention.

Roberts said the resident also noted a gas leak, but during Roberts’ initial visit to the well and several visits following, he said no gas was detected.

“Sometimes the smell is because the operators have to come and empty the stock tanks. They do this at least once a month,” Roberts said. “This causes vapors to be released into the air causing a gas or oil smell.”

Each county in Ohio has one lead inspector and one backup inspector; they do random inspections on established wells.

“There are times when we go out and do random well inspections when we’re out, and we just happen to go by a tank, so we’ll stop by and inspect the site,” Roberts said.

Jay Cheslock, ODNR mineral resource supervisor, said after the initial drilling process, it is the job of the operating company to maintain the wells.

In the case of the well near Cardinal Mooney, and many others in Mahoning County, that company is Everflow Eastern. No company official could be reached to comment for this story.

“The oil companies go and produce at the oil and gas wells daily, and ODNR watches over them when they’re drilling initially,” Cheslock said. “After they’ve been producing for a while, we just spot check them or we handle complaints from residents who call in a gas leak.”

Roberts said he gets about 10 complaints per year about possible gas leaks.

Jim Cooney, assistant principal at Cardinal Mooney High School, said he wasn’t previously aware of the vandalism issues at the well site.

“Now that I know these things are happening, we will make periodic checks on the well ourselves to make sure everything is as it’s supposed to be,” he said.

efranco@vindy.com