DALLAS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Dallas-based Chief Oil and Gas says Pennsylvania's Lycoming County may be sitting atop huge natural gas reserves, the Williamsport (Pa.) Sun Gazette reports.
According to the newspaper, the company has drilled three wells in the county -- two in Mifflin and one in Watson -- and is preparing to drill a well in Penn after the holidays, said Jason de Wolfe, a company representative. The company is also planning to drill three more wells after the first of the year, he said.
In 2008, COG plans to invest $100 million and drill between 15 and 20 wells in the Appalachian Basin, which runs between southern New York state and West Virginia, de Wolfe said.
"We're excited to be here. There is a lot of promise in the area," he told the newspaper. "This is the most excited we've seen our president in a long time."
The Appalachian Basin contains a large formation of shale called the Marcellus Shale, de Wolfe said, and the U.S. Geological Survey estimates there could be up to 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas there.
The wells in Lycoming County are the first to be drilled into the Marcellus Shale.
