Counties With 64 Percent Of Marcellus Wells File To Adopt Drilling Fee
So far, 18 counties with a total of 3,174 natural gas wells (63.7 percent) have formally filed their intent with the Public Utility Commission to adopt a drilling impact fee under the Act 13 Marcellus Shale Law.
This means 64 percent of the $211.1 million the Act is suppose to raise in revenue in 2012 or about $126.6 million will be available so far.
The counties include: New- Allegheny (9 wells), Bedford (1 well), Butler (109 wells), New- Carbon (0 wells), New- Columbia (3 wells), Elk (58 wells), Forest (6 wells), New- Greene (415 wells), Lawrence (2 wells), Lycoming (473 wells), New- McKean (53 wells), Perry (0 wells), New- Sullivan (41 wells), New- Susquehanna (462 wells), Tioga- (693 wells), Washington (560 wells) and Westmoreland (191 wells), New- Wyoming (98 wells) counties. 4,344 of the 4,982 producing Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania are in just 11 counties: Bradford-1,008, Tioga-693, Washington-560, Lycoming- 473, Susquehanna-462, Greene-415, Westmoreland-191, Fayette-185, Clearfield-136, Armstrong-112 and Butler-109.
For 2012, counties have until April 16 to adopt a drilling fee ordinance. For more information, visit the PUC's Act 13 Drilling Fee and Drilling Fee Public Documents webpages.
