Council receives briefing on efforts to tap shale

By D.A. Wilkinson | February 3, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

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.

Dean said there have been natural-gas wells within municipalities, such as Fort Worth, Texas.

Drilling in Ohio is regulated by the Ohio Department of the Natural Resources and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Drilling, when it begins, goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week until all the gas is recovered.

Dean said the company he works for sells to companies that specialize in transmitting the natural gas.

Keith Chamberlin, the city’s manager, said the city has drilled before for water but not for natural gas.