By Tom Precious Buffalo News
ULYSSES, Pa. – A roughneck rappels down a wire after setting in place another 90-foot section of pipe on a rig that will drill a hole about four miles into the earth.
The 150-foot-tall rig chugs along in a rhythmic hum, boring at a relatively slow pace of 33 feet per hour as the bit hits tougher rock. In the coming days, drilling will slowly turn from vertical to horizontal, pushing through the shale below to tap the natural gas it holds.
Early next year, the next phase – hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – is expected to begin on the six completed wells on a 5-acre drill pad called Headwaters 145. Natural gas should start flowing by next summer from this mountain community in Potter County.
This is Terry Pegula’s other world, far from the heady lifestyles of the NFL and NHL.
Drilling for natural gas is what made him a billionaire four times over and allowed him to purchase the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, after he sold a sizable share of his operations to bigger companies. Many people thought he was out of the natural gas business after he made his fortune. But, behind the scenes, Pegula kept gathering land rights and in the past couple of years stepped up drilling for gas in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
His small company has amassed drilling rights on 120,000 acres of leased land in Potter County. And he is betting more natural gas riches wait to be untapped from the Utica shale.Read more....
ULYSSES, Pa. – A roughneck rappels down a wire after setting in place another 90-foot section of pipe on a rig that will drill a hole about four miles into the earth.
The 150-foot-tall rig chugs along in a rhythmic hum, boring at a relatively slow pace of 33 feet per hour as the bit hits tougher rock. In the coming days, drilling will slowly turn from vertical to horizontal, pushing through the shale below to tap the natural gas it holds.
Early next year, the next phase – hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – is expected to begin on the six completed wells on a 5-acre drill pad called Headwaters 145. Natural gas should start flowing by next summer from this mountain community in Potter County.
This is Terry Pegula’s other world, far from the heady lifestyles of the NFL and NHL.
Drilling for natural gas is what made him a billionaire four times over and allowed him to purchase the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, after he sold a sizable share of his operations to bigger companies. Many people thought he was out of the natural gas business after he made his fortune. But, behind the scenes, Pegula kept gathering land rights and in the past couple of years stepped up drilling for gas in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
His small company has amassed drilling rights on 120,000 acres of leased land in Potter County. And he is betting more natural gas riches wait to be untapped from the Utica shale.Read more....
