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Trumbull officials to OK driller's road-use pact
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County commissioners are expected today to approve the county’s first road-use and maintenance agreement with an oil and gas company planning to drill a horizontal well using hydraulic fracturing.
The agreement is between Trumbull County commissioners and CONSOL Energy/CNX Gas Corp. of Pittsburgh for a site off Warren-Sharon Road in Vienna Township. It likely is to be the county’s first horizontal well.
The agreement calls for CNX to carry a $1 million liability-insurance policy and a road bond of $100,000.
In the agreement, CNX spells out upgrades and paving to be done to Warren-Sharon Road and Warner Road before construction of the well site, which will be on Warren-Sharon Road near Warner Road.
The company will upgrade about a mile of the two roads to prepare for the thousands of trucks that will use them over a three-month period, said Don Barzak, director of governmental affairs for highway engineer Randy Smith.
The commissioners approved the general language to be used in all road-use and maintenance agreements late last month in anticipation of CNX’s plans.
Since then, Smith and his staff have been approached by other gas and oil companies planning horizontal wells in Trumbull County, including two of the larger companies, BP and Chesapeake.
Barzak said that brings to five the number of companies inquiring about the road requirements for a horizontal-drilling operation.
The two others are Carrizo Oil and Gas Inc. of Houston, which has talked about a possible well off of Hayes-Orangeville Road in Hartford Township, and EnerVest Ltd. of Houston.
At Tuesday’s county- commissioners planning meeting, Barzak noted that CNX agreed to provide the higher bond amount ($100,000) than currently required ($50,000) because the county is giving consideration to increasing the bond to $100,000 in the future.
A bond provides the county with some recourse in the event that the drilling company causes damage to the roads or bridges, Barzak explained.
At a meeting last week, Barzak and Smith talked about their plans to propose higher bond amounts for horizontal wells than the bond amounts in place now for the type of wells — sometimes called Clinton wells — that have been in use in Trumbull County for many years.
The higher bonds would be $100,000 for companies planning to make road improvements before drilling and $350,000 per mile of road used if not doing preventive work.
“Everything seems to be in order,” Barzak told commissioners of the CNX road-use management agreement. “On the surface, the first experience has been very good. [CNX] did a study on the road. They’ve been more than willing to comply with everything we saw as a potential problem.”
Barzak expected CNX’s road-work project to begin within a couple of weeks. He said he didn’t know when the drilling would begin.