ASHLAND – Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is proceeding with exploratory drilling plans to create wells for fracking in Ashland County.
“We are moving forward with our first well in Ohio,” John Smelko, manager of environmental and regulatory compliance for Cabot’s North Region told Ashland County Commissioners Thursday.
Smelko said the first well will be in Green Township, located about .8 miles from Ohio 511 on Township Road 2375. The company has already obtained permits from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to construct a pad and a well in that location.
“Our goal is to begin construction of the pad on Tuesday,” Smelko said. “We expect to take somewhere around three weeks or so to build that pad, and then we intend to start with the drilling portion of the project.”
Smelko said the Texas-based oil and gas company will begin by drilling a vertical well to the depth of about 5,400 feet. From that vertical well, the company plans to begin horizontal drilling. The drilling process is expected to take about 30 days, he said.
“Because this is our first well in Ohio and in this county, this is an exploration well, so there is going to be some extra time and care in logging the data and evaluating the well and figuring out what we actually have,” Smelko said.
Smelko said the company plans to drill three to five wells in the area over the next several months.
“Ideally, we would find oil and gas and we would proceed from there,” he said.
Smelko said the company has plans to locate its second well in Mohican Township and is working on securing locations for other wells.
Commissioner Denny Bittle asked Smelko whether the company plans to drill horizontally multiple times from a single vertical well. Smelko said it did not.
After hearing from Smelko and from County Engineer Ed Meixner, commissioners approved a Roadway Use, Repair and Maintenance (RUMA) agreement with Cabot and Green Township.
Smelko has agreed to improve the township road to prepare it for increased heavy traffic as well as to repair any damage to county or township roads caused by the project.
“This is basically Ashland County’s third RUMA agreement,” Meixner said. “We had one for the well that was up in Clear Creek Township that Devon Energy did back in 2011. Then we had two other RUMAs from last year when the pipeline came through. They’re all very similar.”
Meixner said the same agreement will apply for any future wells in other townships, but additional amendments specific to other wells and other townships may be added to the agreement.
Cabot’s planned fracking activity has been met with opposition from a coalition of landowners in Richland, Ashland and Holmes Counties.
