Number of Marcellus Wells Could Triple by 2020, Report Says

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Number of Marcellus wells could triple by 2020, report says
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The number of active wells drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale could more than triple by 2020, according to a new, industry-funded report released this morning.

The Penn State report -- commissioned by the Marcellus Shale Coalition lobbying group -- projects the number of Marcellus wells to range anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 in the next decade, depending on whether natural gas starts to trade at higher prices. An estimated 1,055 wells are operating in the natural gas formation that underlies much of Pennsylvania and other Appalachian states.

In 2010, Marcellus development in Pennsylvania accounted for $11.2 billion in value added, according to the report. By 2020, that figure could jump to $20.2 billion per year with more than 17 billion cubic feet gas produced per day.

Taxes get a starring role in today's report from Penn State, but none of them are coming from Harrisburg lawmakers. Instead, the report presents data on tax revenues that come with business transactions or paychecks, saying the total tax impact from drilling in 2010 was $1.08 billion in state and local taxes and $1.43 billion in federal taxes.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11201/1161660-100.stm#ixzz1Sfxu59TL


Read more: Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11201/1161660-100.stm#ixzz1Sfxu59TL

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Keep in mind this rah-rah, "ain't fracking grand" report was sponsored by the fracking industry. The only academic on PA GOP Governor Corbett's hand-picked Marcellus Shale Commission is a Penn State Professor whose big research projects have been funded by grants from the fracking industry for years.

A press conference on the report was held at 2 p.m. today. The release of this report was strategically timed to occur within 2 days of the scheduled public report by the Shale Commission, and I've no doubt the two reports will compliment each other. For one thing, the Penn State report makes much of the tax revenues from business transactions and income tax paid by workers. May I point out that those taxes are paid in every other state with fracking, but those states also impose a hefty extraction tax. So until Pennsylvania matches the extraction taxes of West Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, etc., Frackers make bigger profits in Pennsylvania, and we taxpayers are footing the bill for the highway/infrastructure wear and tear, environmental impacts on water and air quality, and health impacts .

This link is to the full report

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pdf/201107/20110720pdf_final_marcellus_report.pdf

And check out the interesting disclaimer at the very beginning, page ii, of the report.

Disclaimer translation:

The only entities willing to go on the record as buying this propaganda piece are the corporate shills that wrote it.