Columbiana council briefed on Marcellus shale drilling

COLUMBIANA

City council received a briefing on the efforts to tap the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale for natural gas.

Ryan V. Dean, a manager for Chesapeake Energy based in Cannonsburg, Pa., said at Tuesday’s session with lawmakers that he has worked in the county to secure drilling rights as part of the exploration to tap the Marcellus shale and the deeper Utica Shale, two underground formations believed to contain large amounts of natural gas.

The company’s main headquarters is in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The company has 150 rigs and 30 in the Marcellus Shale itself.

He said cement casings are used to go 4,000 to 6,000 feet deep to recover the natural gas.

“It’s a type of underwater exploration,” Dean said.

Searching for natural gas in Utica Shale is fairly similar, he added.

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