Refracking of West Virginia Wells
In 2012, the oil and gas industry created more than 1.2 million jobs. Industry experts expect this trend to continue to more than 2.3 million jobs in 2035. Those experts also expect revenues to exceed $1.9 trillion during that time. The development of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technology, which is the extraction process for natural gas under shale formations, has allowed the oil and gas industry to experience this exponential growth.
In concert with this expansion is the technological expansion of equipment used for fracking. Armed with these new technologies, energy companies are heading to numerous places throughout the U.S. to extract natural gas. In other words, natural gas fields are everywhere. West Virginia is a beneficiary of the expanding fracking department.
The Marcellus Shale, which is a large rock formation found throughout the eastern United States, contains significant amounts of untapped natural gas. Part of the Marcellus Shale is found in West Virginia and West Virginia is capitalizing on the Marcellus Shale’s economic opportunity. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) controls fracking in the state’s region of the Marcellus Shale.
Refracking of Wells
In general, the price tag for digging a well to obtain natural gas is between $8 and $12 million. Another issue with digging is that it is a magnet for opposition from those who claim that such wells are environmentally unfriendly and destructive. Opponents are constantly petitioning the WVDEP and other regulatory agencies to ban or limit the fracking industry.
In regard to both cost and opposition, new technology that allows for the refracking of wells has become a boon for the economy. Well refracking, also known as Fracking 2.0, is the process wherein those who initially dug the well use technology to extract more natural gas from the same well. The process cost is a bargain at $2 million and does not involve the drilling of new wells. For consumers, the ramifications are favorable. The price of natural gas will stay flat or drop due to cheaper production costs and a reduced need to fight environmental opposition. Furthermore, the uninterrupted supply will continue, thereby reducing the odds of a significant production drop. A production drop would create a roller coaster-like supply of ups and downs that would trigger a huge price spike in natural gas.
Moreover, well refracking will keep West Virginians employed because gas companies would look to continue producing at a given well. Instead of extracting from a well and moving on, gas companies would want to stay at a given well to refrack from that well. Likely, those companies would want to continue employing those employees in the same areas who have familiarity with specific wells.
Fifth Amendment
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires the government to pay citizens when it interferes with their rights to property. This has been a source of controversy when private citizens want to extract oil and gas from their property. It may be less of an issue now that re-fracking is becoming more of a means to extract natural gas because there is less need to dig new wells.
If you are facing opposition due to gas and oil exploration in West Virginia, contact the law firm of Hendrickson and Long, experienced environmental defense litigators.