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By Bob Weaver
Thirty years have passed since one of West Virginia's first experimental
wells was drilled at Mount Zion, Calhoun County. Local residents remember
the secrecy when Exxon and Consolidated Gas Supply erected the giant rig
between Route 16 and Pine Creek.
Even more memorable was the companies denial of hitting gas, thus
lowering expectations. Local residents remember explosive booms from the
site, knocking pictures from the wall. The nearly two year project, reaching
deep in the earth 20,000 feet, was essentially declared a dry hole. Few
believed the denials.
The search for potential deep well sites in Calhoun appears to have peaked
with about 200 locations. The county has been a hotbed of research for the
past three years, the County Clerk's record room filled with elbow-to-elbow
abstracters. The room is empty now.
Seismic earth thumpers and high-tech researchers strung miles of lines and
connected hundreds of devices, covering every inch of the county,
prognosticating where the best pockets might be. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars, maybe millions, have been spent "looking."
Sitting without connection to the outside world, Calhoun's first deep wells
sit idly near Nobe Road and on Route 5 near Grantsville. No announcement
has been made regarding their status, but some reports say they did not turn
out well.
Some drillers say they were too cautious, drilling "overbalanced." The mud
suspension which is used to keep the gas from blowing out may have gotten
into the formation, sealing off the supply. The Ardent project on Rt. 16 was
reportedly doing well, but something happened toward the end of drilling,
although it is unconfirmed.
Conflicts reportedly surfaced between some local holders and Ardent over
drilling boundaries and rights, and the project was interrupted by a major
land side on the edge of the Ardent site, above Route 5.
Few comments are heard about the Ike Morris-Cabot well near Nobe,
although some local residents are concerned about clean-up and
restoration.
The Big Otter well off Route 16 in Clay, south of I-79, appears to be another
story. Insider information declares it a big winner. The Columbia Natural
Resources project, unofficially, has been producing 40-80 million cubic feet
of gas a day, with 7,000 pound rock pressure.
If this information could be verified, the discovery is spectacular.
The Clay well is located on Dead Fall Run, near the home of the late folk
musician Jenes Cottrell. If alive, he would surely compose a tune about the
monster rig and mountain people.
Columbia is said to be drilling about 22 wells in Roane County during the
next year, half shale wells and half deep wells. The company is reportedly
doing an off-set well near their first big discovery, the Parker well on
Vineyard Ridge. Others are located near the Roane-Calhoun line.
Regionally, it seems there are six to eight deep wells that are major
producers, but there could be more. Drilling has been focused in Roane,
Jackson, Braxton, Calhoun and Clay counties.
Is there a cooling down on deep well drilling? Maybe, for a while. There are
great reserves of natural gas in this region, possibly one of the world's
greatest deposits. Development will come.
What it means to our citizens is another story.
Layers of laws and regulations surround deep well drilling, many of them
open to interpretation. They will directly affect what benefits our rural
communities might receive from this "boom."
Understanding tax methods becomes difficult when production numbers are
held back for about two years. Some researchers say discrepancies in
values is a problem, metering stations several miles from wells being the
"point of sale," mixing producing wells, along with the longevity and
depletion rates.
Historians who have studied the extraction of energy and natural products
from West Virginia, conclude the richest areas have received the least
benefit, poor roads, infrastructure and residual joblessness. The greatest
pockets of poverty are above or on the greatest resources.
John O'Brien's new Pulitizer-nominated book "At Home in the Heart of
Appalachia" defines Appalachia's legacy, victims of rapacious greed and
exploitation. A sad and painful tale, never-ending.
The Calhoun Commission and the Board of Education, passed a resolution
asking for a fair shake with deep well drilling.
It asked for "fairness in taxation on the production of deep well drilling," or
what citizens could reasonably expect to be returned to the community. It
asked government and developers to consider "our rights and needs."
Such desires and wishes may only rest in the stars.
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