Who's That Drilling in My Neighborhood?! - A Guide to Public Information (Part 2)

This second part of our Guide to Public Information is an Overview of the stages of Marcellus development and the most useful on-line information sources. Part 3 (to follow soon) tells how to find Production and Inspection/Violation data for established gas wells.

Purpose

The purpose of this Guide is to help 'average citizens' deal more effectively with Marcellus Shale development. It is written for people who are NOT directly involved (i.e., as land-owners with gas leases), but who need to know about drilling activity in their communities.

There's a lot of information available on-line; but it's not always easy to know how to find it, or how to piece-together a complete picture from multiple sources. Furthermore, our situation is constantly changing (e.g., as more sources become available). So this Guide is necessarily a work-in-progress. Finally, since we're most familiar with Pennsylvania (particularly, Allegheny County) our examples will be drawn from this region.

Your feedback is welcome! Let us know what you've learned (especially where we need to change our guidance), and how we can put your experience to use. Also, if you know about on-line information outside of Pennsylvania, please help us to expand our perspective.

Stages of development

The 'life cycle' of a Marcellus Shale natural gas well can be divided into a few major stages:

1. Signing a Lease
2. Obtaining a Permit
3. Drilling and Completion (or 'Fracking')
4. Production
5. Inspection and Violation Reporting
6. Capping and Reclamation

The final stage, Capping and Reclamation, isn't likely to happen in the Marcellus Shale region for quite some time; so we won't be dealing with it at all.

As for the others stages of the life-cycle, we've found on-line data about the LATER stages to be easier to understand than data about the EARLIEST stages. So this Guide is written 'back-to-front' -- beginning with Production and Inspection and Violation Reporting, then moving 'backward' and coming to Signing a Lease in our last installment.

Overview of Sources

We're still discovering and exploring new public sources, especially on-line. Here are the most useful that we've found so far. (Click the colored-font title to open the source in your browser, or 'right-click' to see its full web address.) In later parts of this Guide, we'll offer detailed instructions and hints for each of the sources.

Primary Data Sources

'Primary' sources are those published by the entity (usually governmental) who is directly responsible for the collecting and maintaining the data - unlike 'Secondary' sources, listed below.

1. County Government
   
   The County sources are most useful in finding information about Leasing. The examples here are for Allegheny County. We're still exploring neighboring counties; but, in general, their on-line resources are less comprehensive.
   

   • Allegheny County 'Real Estate Page' (Office of Property Assessments)
     
     This source is searchable by street address, and provides a history of owners, selling prices, and assessments. For most properties, it will also have a thumbnail map and a photograph. Most importantly, you can use this resource to find 'parcel' numbers, which then point to Leases (below).

   • Allegheny County 'Department of Real Estate' (formerly 'Recorder of Deeds')
     
     This source is searchable by name and by 'parcel' number. It provides a list of transactions which affect the Deed for the property -- including Leases. (The summary information is on-line, and free; to read the actual Deed or Lease document, you must go in person or pay a usage fee for on-line access.)

2. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)

   DEP becomes involved at the stage of Obtaining a Permit, and is the best source of information about active wells, through the Capping and Reclamation stage. From the DEP home page you would navigate to the 'Oil & Gas' section of the site.
   

   DEP publishes a lot of reports and spreadsheets, many based on data self-reported by drillers. You will find occasional errors and inconsistancies between one report and another.
   

   • DEP 'Permits'
     
     This link goes directly to a spreadsheet (MS 'Excel' format) of all Oil & Gas Permits which have been issued by DEP in the current year (2011). It is updated approximately once a week.
   • DEP 'Rig Report'
     
     This link points to a spreadsheet of 'SPUD' reports. (SPUDing a well refers to the very beginning of the drilling operation, when the first piece of pipe enters the ground.)
   • DEP 'Production Report'
     
     This link goes to a (very large!) spreadsheet, containing self-reported data from every well for which a DEP permit has been issued. It contains data on 'production' of natural gas (and also of 'waste') and other status updates.
   • DEP 'Marcellus Violation Report'
     
     This spreadsheet is organized by Operator, and includes only Marcellus Shale wells.

Secondary Data Sources

'Secondary' sources are those which re-publish data that they've obtained from other (Primary) sources. Sometimes they attempt to 'cleanse' the data, correcting obvious errors and discrepancies (although you might prefer to work with the original data, warts-and-all). These Secondary sources can 'add value' by creating cross-references, by placing data on maps, or simply by being easier to navigate than the original.

1. FracTracker
   • Data Tool
     
     'FracTracker' can be a challenge to use, but is very powerful. Many people contribute 'datasets'; those pertaining directly to oil and gas exploration may come from DEP, but other datasets represent natural resources, at-risk populations, and other phenomena which form interesting relationships. (You can browse the datasets without registering; but an account, and some training, are required for those who want to add their own data.)
   • FracTracker also has a useful blog.

2. Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA)
   
   PASDA has links to other data sources, mostly within Pennsylvania but a few from other states as well. Data can be previewed (on maps) within the PASDA site, or downloaded for analysis.
   
   • Allegheny County Parcel Viewer (from PASDA)
     
     This map allows you to zoom-in on a neighborhood (in Allegheny County) and obtain the 'parcel' (Block and Lot number) to cross-reference into other County databases.
     

   • Other datasets
     
     PASDA has a fairly flexible 'search' page, with too many choices to list here.

3. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System (PNCIS), 'Oil and Gas Leasing Map'
   
   This map was created sometime in mid-2010; as far as we know, it isn't being updated. But it's the only place we've seen where you can zoom-in on a neighborhood and see which parcels have been leased for gas drilling.

Other Resources

In addition to sources of Marcellus-specific data, we'll list other 'tools' that will be useful to you.

• Google Earth
  
  Google Earth is invaluable for mapping other datasets (e.g., '.kml' files from PASDA). It's also a handy tool to quickly 'zoom' to a set of GPS coordinates, to see what's in the vicinity of a leasehold or a well site.