A Bradford, Pennsylvania company, Minard Run Oil, last month closed on the purchase of leases, operating gas wells, and related equipment in Seneca and Cayuga counties. The leases and wells were bought from Chesapeake Apalachia LLC.
According to the Elmira Star Gazette, the deal includes 413 gas wells that tap into the Queenston underground formation. The formation lies beneath the Marcellus shale.
Also included in the sale were leases to 56,130 acres and almost 200 miles of pipelines as well as compression, metering and production stations.
Minard Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Bulmer says the company wants to drill 20 to 30 wells this year. The Queenston wells will be drilled vertically, and if they are fracked, it would not exceed New York’s regulations for low-volume fracking — which is allowable under DEC rules.
The drilling schedule, however, is contingent on the price of natural gas rising above $4 per thousand cubic feet in 2014, something it hasn’t done since August 2011.
