natural gas Firm drops plan to drill in SE Pa.

Associated Press

FERNDALE, Pa.

A Michigan-based energy company has given up a six-year battle to drill for natural gas in southeastern Pennsylvania’s upper Bucks County, citing opposition from local government.

Terry Bela, manager of Arbor Resources, told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that Nockamixon Township’s elected officials “made it impossible for the company to move forward.”

Arbor had signed hundreds of leases with landowners to drill exploratory wells, but Nockamixon Township fought the plan, arguing that the land wasn’t zoned for heavy industry.

Township attorney Jordan Yeager said the company sent him a letter last week saying it would drop its legal efforts.

State lawmakers last year said no drilling permits could be issued in Bucks and Montgomery counties pending a study of how much drillable gas is beneath them.

A recent U.S. Geological Survey report indicated that the South Newark Basin, which is below the township and stretches from north-central New Jersey to Montgomery County, could contain as much as 876 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

But the Marcellus Shale formation in the western and northern parts of the state has 160 times more gas, according to the latest U.S. Department of Energy estimates.