Penn. Department of Environmental Protection issues annual oil and gas report

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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently released its 2017 annual oil and natural gas report, which found that Pennsylvania’s unconventional industry produced 5.36 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in 2017.

The unconventional industry’s 2017 production represents a five percent increase over Pennsylvania’s 2016 production and a 1,360 percent increase since 2010. Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in 2017 natural gas production.

The report also found the commonwealth’s unconventional industry maintained a 95 percent compliance rate on DEP inspections.

The report also said that “… there is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing has resulted in a direct impact to a water supply in Pennsylvania.”

It noted the occurrence of stray gas issues, also called methane migration, in some cases but also stated that studies conducted near Appalachian Basin oil and natural gas operations have determined that shale development is not a major threat to groundwater.

According to the report, there were 810 new unconventional shale wells drilled in Pennsylvania in 2017, up from 503 in 2016. Washington and Greene counties in Southwest Pennsylvania saw the most new wells drilled this past year, followed by Susquehanna County in Northeast Pennsylvania.