Dec 4, 2014 3 min read

At a well site in Beaver County in 2009, Range Resources became the first company to drill horizontally into the Utica Shale formation, which sits more than 3,000 feet beneath the Marcellus Shale. Now, Range has become the first to drill a Utica well in Washington County.

The Utica well in Donegal Township, located on property owned by the Claysville Sportsmen’s Club, was already drilled and fracked.

Range hoped to begin flaring the natural gas Wednesday, but the process had not yet begun by Thursday afternoon. It was expected to begin any minute – an illuminating display that nearby residents would not miss.

“When they described it at our township building, they said it would be twice as large as any of the ones we’ve had in the past,” said township Supervisor Doug Teagarden. “It should be able to be seen from the city of Washington.”

The nearest resident lives about 1,600 feet from to the well site.

Although it will be bright and perhaps noisy, Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the flaring process will last only a few days. Hicks Road will remain closed during that time, with exceptions for local traffic. Both Range and the township have contacted residents, first responders and emergency management officials to make them aware of the flaring.

Because there are no nearby pipelines that are capable of transporting the dry gas produced from the well, as opposed to wet gas that is more common in the Marcellus Shale, Range must burn it off from a stack about 90 feet tall during the flowback and well-cleaning process. Once that is complete, Range can take samples and predict what production levels will be for the well. Then the well can be plugged for production at a later date when the necessary infrastructure is available.

Although gas flaring used to be a common practice five or six years ago, Pitzarella said the expansion of infrastructure has made it largely unnecessary. New rules implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which will go into effect in January, restrict the act of venting gas and instead require “green completions” to reduce emissions.

Pitzarella said Range had already been adhering to those standards for four years. He said there was no rush to drill into the Utica formation, which extends into Ohio, because the Marcellus Shale has proven to be the “most economic” in Pennsylvania. But Range has had the opportunity to learn from other companies taking that approach.

“Because our Utica acreage sits beneath our Marcellus acreage, we were able to sort of allow others in the industry to be able to drill those wells first.”

Pitzarella said they don’t know for sure yet, but they believe Washington County could be “the dry gas core area for the Utica,” or in other words, the best spot to drill.

“We have really strong beliefs as to what it will do, but you don’t know until you drill it,” he said.