# Tour of a Marcellus shale well drill rig



## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Last week I was fortunate to attend an emergency responder walk through of a Marcellus Shale well drilling site. I'm a volunteer firefighter in our township (barely-I'm finding less and less time to be a part of the firehall) and we are more likely than not going to have one of these wells on our farm in the near future. 2 representatives from each of 4 local fire companies went on the tour, which was from around 5PM to about 6:30PM on a nice sunny evening.

We met at our township offices with the gas company's community advisor, a very nice, well spoken young woman of maybe her late 20's. She knows her stuff and everyone who deals with her likes her. We geared up in our Nomex rescue suits and carpooled the couple miles to the well pad. Once there, we met the site superintendent and the "company man" who is kind of the lead guy on the place.

The company man was about my age (late 30's) and the superintendent was older but fit, and claimed 33 years of experience. 

We started with a safety brief and signed in to the location on a guest roster, they made sure we all had safety glasses and boots on, and we started the tour. They showed us the drill pipe and the special pipe sections that allow them to turn the well hole and drill horizontally. Then we went and looked at the huge Caterpillar generators that power the whole place and the 20,000 gallon diesel tank for the site. They use 4,500 gallons of diesel on a busy day. We saw the "mud" pumps that shoot the drill mud down the hole and the cyclone that separates the water from the cuttings that come back up the hole. The entire drill string hangs from a HUGE block and tackle that's rated for 450,000 pounds and the pipe is spun by 2- 1,150 HP AC electric motors. 

We climbed onto the rig's drilling floor, maybe 15' from the ground and saw where the roughnecks hook and unhook the pipe sections. We went into the driller's cabin and saw his work station, which is air conditioned, brightly lit, and 100% computerized. He has closed circuit cameras all over the site to monitor the equipment and personnel, and emergency stop buttons to shut the whole place down in case of trouble. He has huge windows with windshield wipers on the roof and walls of his cabin.

The rig is 147' tall and the entire thing with mud pumps, etc takes up a good acre. 

As far as waste, the cuttings run through a cyclone to be dried, and the thick silt/mud that's left is dumped into big hoppers where it's mixed with sawdust to solidify it and it goes into special yellow roll-on boxes with bolt on lids where it gets disposed in a DEP permitted landfill. They had dozens of these things at the site waiting to be filled.

Noise: it was loud but not unbearable. The rig was down for electrical repair (they said) while we were there, and the guys were taking the drill power unit apart. There were 4 or 5 (I forget) big air compressors and the big generators. Supposedly running full tilt it's about 100dB at the drill hole, which is not really that bad. It was just background noise, more of a loud hum than motors shrieking and air rushing. I was pleasantly surprised.

People: Crew of 20 that works 2 12 hour shifts per day, 14 days on and 14 days off. All were dirty from work but looked like clean, reputable people. Not a misfit shady character in the bunch. All were friendly and happy to answer questions. There were living quarters and such right on site. I saw all men, but there are female roughnecks. 

Site appearance: CLEAN. No litter, everything was in its place. Very well organized.

I did not identify myself as someone with whom that gas company is dealing with through lawyers for leasing issues and did not ask any questions in that regard, though I did bite my tounge a few times.

They want to put a pad in our hay field, right out from our house. I'm not keen on that location but I'm a little less leery of this stage of the operation now that I've seen it. 

If anyone reading this finds themselves in this situation, please see a lawyer before you sign anything. These companies are legal to a T but not especially ethical. The amount that they were "prepared to offer us" up front turned out to be the minimum that the state of PA allows them to offer and they made it sound like they were being generous. There are too many stories of people expecting a quick buck and they get ruined from some obscure line in the contract they sign because they couldn't understand the lawyer talk. 

A bunch of landowners in our area found a lawyer with gas well experience and hired the firm to represent us as a group. The group is named after one of the landowners e.g. The Smith Group (name is fake here). We refill a retainer every month and they handle our needs as they arise.

In my honest opinion, this is a way for landowners to make a good income from their farm, but you have to watch your 6 every second when dealing with these people. I'm scared and excited about what's coming, and believe me it's coming.


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## swjohnsey (Jan 21, 2013)

Definately get together with other land owners. Landmen are notorious for lowballing lease money. You can also negotiate the bulding of roads and such.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

More than any other industry I have seen a huge variation in attitude from crew to crew and company to company in oil/gas workers, don't know why. The other big thing though is that when they were going full bore, at least up here in Alberta, they couldn't afford to be picky because labour was just so short. In the down cycles and when unemployment is up they can afford to weed out the bad apples.

I would definitely agree that simply going along with their agent can often be a bad move in the long term. Everything may be fine but unless you are going to do a ton of research and are very confident in your legal skills, getting advice from someone with experience and knowledge in the field is due diligence imo.

Good luck with your situation


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## Well_Driller (Jun 3, 2012)

Those rigs are no doubt impressive, they make rigs like mine, and even the 3,000 ft machines look like toys. I wish I had an air conditioned cab to work in.... i'm out in the open all day, and I can tell you after i'm on my rig for a good 16 hour day I look pretty rough, mean, and dirty. One good thing is it keeps me in shape.... Now i've not had this happen to me (yet) but around here some drillers have hit gas pockets just drilling for water. Some can be pretty nasty and some have caught fire, so drilling even shallow holes can be dangerous as typically water well rigs have nothing to control such an event. Hopefully I never run into something like that.....


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

So they are fracking in our township now. Is anyone else involved in shale gas in some capacity? Mods, if there's any interest, could we maybe get a sticky about shale gas for us to compare stories/tips, warnings, etc.?


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

It's going on all over Northern and Western PA. A friend of mine is in a unit that's getting drilled this week.

Big pipeline coming through the area as well. A 60 or so mile pipeline going through Butler and Beaver Counties down to the Ohio river. I heard they're starting that in October and finish April 2014. Once that line is in, I'm thinking there's going to be a lot more wells being drilled in that area.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Zoom Zoom, there's a big one going through our township as well, put in by Sunoco. It looks like it missed our farm, but lots of neighbors are caught up in it. Also, the gas company's seismic testing contractor started surveying on land today that they are not allowed to be on. Several landowners apparently chased them off.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

That's a no-no (surveying without written permission). They definitely get it around here.

Have you been approached about your farm?


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

No one is home during the day so I don't know whether we were visited or not. We have a law firm involved and have been given advice on what to do and say if they show up. Our regular monthly Township meeting was last night and there was a pretty good turnout. Our attorney was there and we had a little meeting afterward. Apparently the gas co. contractors (surveyors) were very civil and left without issue. They were respectful and did not have any kind of attitude or anything. A lot of township residents are taking issue with the fracking water trucks but to me they aren't doing anything illegal and they are a necessary part of the process. They are a pain but there's not much to do about them.


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