West Virginia gas industry blasts proposed Marcellus Shale permit fees

Chemical News: West Virginia gas industry blasts proposed Marcellus Shale permit fees

https://www.chemnet.com Sep 21,2011 Platts
A proposed permit fee for drilling in West Virginia share of the Marcellus Shale formation will hurt the state as its competes with Pennsylvania for investment, the head of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association said Tuesday.

The association's executive director, Corky DeMarco, said a proposed fee of $10,000 for a first well permit and $5,000 for each following well at the same site was "excessive." He said he had originally been told the fee for the first well on a pad would $5,000 and $1,000 for each subsequent well.

The fee structure was adopted September 13 by a joint legislative committee that is writing the state law that will guide development of the resource. "We were blindsided," DeMarco said. "This kind of fee will make us uncompetitive with states like Pennsylvania, which has lower permit fees and no severance tax."

The co-chairman of the committee, state Senator Senator Doug Facemire, insisted the position taken by the committee had been posted for more than a week. DeMarco, Facemire said Tuesday, "needs to pay attention."

Facemire said the committee will have "several more meetings" to consider four additional amendments to a proposed bill. It is possible, he said, the committee will complete its work in October and a bill be approved by a special legislative session in November.

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