MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Although the price of natural gas has been low for several years, production in West Virginia continues to grow stronger. The West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association reports for a 13th straight year, production increased in West Virginia, setting a new all time high in each of those years. The increase for 2016 is only about 2.5 percent, but according to Association Executive Director Anne Blankenship, that’s still a positive.
“That is all due to the investments made in this state and the advancements in technology which allow our drillers to produce natural gas more efficiently,” she said on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline.
Improved technology allowed for increased gas production without drilling additional gas wells. The industry looked at those developments as positive since they reduce the footprint of the industry and its environmental impact. But, according to Blankenship while West Virginia is seeing increased production, the level of increase pales in comparison to neighboring states.
“The disappointing part is we’re not increasing nearly as much as Ohio and Pennsylvania. ” Blankenship said. “Both of those states have mineral efficiency laws in place. Ohio has pooling. Pennsylvania has joint development and co-tenancy. Ohio saw a 43 percent increase in 2016. Obviously they are doing something right there that we don’t have here.”
The legislature gave the gas industry a cool reception to those mineral efficiency proposals during the 2017 Regular Legislative Session, but Blankenship said despite failure of the legislation, progress was made and the industry hoped to keep up the momentum in next year’s session.
“There’s always a lot of education that needs to be done,” she said. “This is not a ‘taking of property rights’ it is a ‘basic majority rules’ concept so we can be in line with surrounding states.”
Blankenship added the lack of any of those efficiency laws along with a relatively high severance tax causes West Virginia to be viewed unfavorably by companies considering drilling in the Mountain State. Many simply choose to cross the state line and set up according to her.
“We have nothing in place to deal with the inefficient manner in which we are having to produce right now,” Blankenship said. “That’s affecting our ability to bring in companies willing to drill in West Virginia.”