According to the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, the Keystone State’s Department of Environmental Protection issued 5,333 drilling permits this year, through October 23. Of those, 1,516 were for the Marcellus shale. Of the 1,944 wells drilled in Pennsylvania in 2009, 403 are Marcellus wells. That’s an enormous ramp-up since 2008, when 476 Marcellus shale permits were issued by the DEP and operators reported 195 drilled wells.

Present estimates are that some 500 million cubic feet of gas per day is being produced from the shale across the play, and volumes should reach 600 million by year-end. Currently, some 50-plus rigs are drilling Marcellus wells, up from about 10 at the beginning of 2008. If the rig count continues to climb along the same path into the future, production could conceivably break a Bcf per day at the close of 2010.

--Peggy Williams, Senior Exploration Editor, Oil and Gas Investor

pwilliams@hartenergy.com