Thursday, August 28, 2014HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says it has rescheduled public hearings related to a "forced pooling" issue in Lawrence and Mercer counties, the agency announced Wednesday.
The hearings, last scheduled for Sept. 16 and 17, will now be held Oct. 27 and 28 at 10 a.m. and 9 a.m. respectively, the DEP said. Another hearing session is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Oct. 28. Under the Oil and Gas Conservation Law of 1961, an administrative hearing must be held before any decision is made on a spacing order application. The Hilcorp hearings will be held at the Lawrence County Government Center in New Castle.
Hilcorp Energy Co. in May applied for a well spacing order that would establish four horizontal gas wells on 3,267 acres in Pulaski Township in Lawrence County and Shenango Township in Mercer County. The company has been active over the last four years drilling for natural gas and natural gas liquids in the Pennsylvania portion of the Utica shale.
Energy companies such as Hilcorp assemble drilling units through leasehold agreements consisting of hundreds of acres so they can drill horizontal wells underneath multiple parcels of private property.
Several property owners have balked at signing leases that Hilcorp says are necessary to complete its drilling units to it can begin exploration on the property.
However, under Pennsylvania state law, an energy company can request a spacing order, which would allow, in this case Hilcorp, horizontal drilling under land without the property owners' consent.
The Hilcorp request is the first spacing order application for an unconventional gas well filed in the state.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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