Gas-well drilling picks up in Boardman

Officials expect to see a resurgence after a slow 2009.

By Denise Dick

BOARDMAN — The township isn’t seeing the amount of natural gas-well drilling it had in recent years because of the economy, but one company has completed two wells in the last couple of months.

Ohio Valley Energy Systems, Austintown, has drilled two natural -gas wells in Boardman during the last two months.

Drilling on both the well on California Avenue and in the 8100 block of Market Street is complete.

“Now it’s just all daylight work” to finish work at the Market Street site, said Rick Liddle of Ohio Valley Energy.

Ben Breniman, township planning and zoning director, said companies completing gas wells must meet requirements to improve the look of the area.

“When it’s done, they’re required to fence it in and put shrubs around the fence,” he said.

Liddle doesn’t anticipate his company’s drilling more wells in the township this year. The price the company receives for natural gas remains low, while steel prices are still high, he said.

Breniman said that another company, Everflow Eastern of Canfield, expects to drill in the township sometime this year.

“They said they would let us know when they get ready to drill,” Breniman said.

Robert Chizmar and Gene DeMarco live in the apartments behind the Market Street well.

They say they were curious about what was going in there, but not bothered by it.

“It was a little noisy at night, but that’s about it,” DeMarco said. “They put it up so quick.”

Chizmar watched the workers as they drilled the well. “They were very entertaining,” said Chizmar, who watched with binoculars through his window.

“They had the drilling and the steam shovel and three bulldozers, and there was a lot of activity.”

Work followed a regular schedule, he said.

“They were very methodical,” Chizmar said. “They would come in at 8 a.m., and they were done at 4 p.m.”

Though the wells aren’t noticeable to most people once drilling is finished, Liddle says wells are all over the township.

“There’s a well about every 2,000 feet in Boardman,” he said.

In fact, Ohio Department of Natural Resources statistics show Mahoning and Trumbull counties ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in production in six of the seven years that ended in 2007.

Land owners in the two counties received $22 million in royalties from gas wells and $7.7 million worth of free gas in 2007, according to industry estimates.

Before 2004, Boardman had zoning regulations prohibiting gas wells from being placed in residential districts where the housing density was greater than 1.9 units per acre.

But the law changed in 2004, giving state officials the exclusive right to regulate the permitting, location and spacing of oil and gas wells in Ohio.

denise_dick@vindy.com

GAS WELLS || By the number

The township has seen many gas wells drilled during the last several years, but the economic downturn has slowed the activity. The number drilled by year:

2010: One

2009: One

2008: Eight

2007: Four

2006: None

2005: Five

2004: One

Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mineral Resources; and township zoning office.