Chevron is international

Casey Junkins writing for the Wheeling Intelligencer on July 22, 2012, wrote the following interesting account about the activities of Chevron in the northern Panhandle of West Virginia:

Energy giant Chevron continues to shore up its Marshall County drilling and fracking operations after temporarily halting production earlier this year.  “To date, some wells have recently been returned to production, and we’ll continue to do so with the remaining wells only as soon as we are confident that they can be operated safely,” said Lee Ann Wainwright, policy, government, and public affairs officer for Chevron.

Since acquiring lease rights and active natural gas operations from AB Resources, NPAR, TriEnergy Holdings and Chief Oil and Gas, Chevron now controls thousands of acres for drilling in Ohio and Marshall counties. The company continues leasing more acreage in the two counties, as well.

However, Chevron also wanted to make sure the West Virginia operations would live up to the company’s safety standards. In June 2010, a well in the name of AB Resources exploded near Moundsville when workers hit a “shallow pocket” of methane gas a little more than 1,000 feet below the ground. In addition to injuring several workers, this ignited a large fireball that burned for days.

To prevent any such problems from occurring under Chevron’s watch, the company ceased operations in Marshall County to make sure the wells it acquired are safe.

Wainwright said this is an ongoing project. “Protecting people and the environment is a core value for Chevron. We place the highest priority on the health and safety of our work force and protection of the environment, and to that end, we will not hesitate to stop or delay any activity until we are confident it can be performed without incident,” Wainwright added.

Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, in 2011 produced 2.673 million barrels of oil-equivalent per day. The company had a global refining capacity of 1.96 million barrels of oil per day at the end the year.

In Derry township of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, just 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, a number of drill sites stand idle.  This has just been described in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  Northern WV seems to be holding its value due to the “wet gas” of southwestern PA and northern WV as a result of the higher hydrocarbons in the gas, i.e. ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes.