Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVMarcellus gas wells outside Morgantown flared Sunday

In a spectacular but brief display, Northeast Natural Energy flared its two Marcellus gas wells across the Monongahela River from Morgantown's south side Dec. 18 in final preparation for gas production.

"The flaring process is very temporary, very controlled," said NNE President Mike John. "On the Morgantown Industrial Park site, the total length was just over 24 hours. We're done now."

John explained that flaring is used during the brief transition from hydraulic fracturing fluid flowback to primarily gas flow.

"When we complete, stimulate or frack these wells, it's a process where water and sand and all that is mixed together and is pumped into the Marcellus shale in order to create small cracks that the gas can flow through," he said in a description of the hydraulic fracturing process. 

When hydraulic fracturing is done and it's time to produce gas, the company opens the well to allow it to flow — but the first thing that comes back is fracturing fluid. After a time, some gas begins to come.

"You have your flare established so that, as the gas begins to come back, it's combusted," John explained. "The water will continue to come back, but in decreasing volumes. As the gas begins to be produced, you can shut your flares in and turn the gas to the pipeline."

Once the flow of fluid is low enough, equipment at the site can separate it from the gas that's headed to the pipeline.

Flaring can take as long as a few days, and accommodates the transition from an all-water flowback to a mix until the gas becomes the dominant portion of the flowback, John said in summary.

The flaring of NNE's two wells was visible and audible for miles around from the hills on the south side of Morgantown from Sunday morning through Monday morning.

While NNE drilled its wells over the summer, it also laid about 3,000 feet of pipeline to a Dominion Hope line that crosses the Morgantown Industrial Park, John said.

"It was very convenient for us and for the Dominion Hope folks," John said. "This gas will be used locally, mostly in the Morgantown market in this instance, because of how their facilities are constructed."

NNE has possible plans for six more wells at the site but will not file permit applications until it sees how its first two wells perform.