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Talisman Energy eager to pay up
Talisman Energy has lost its patience with New York state lawmakers, telling them to copy Pennsylvania and impose higher regulatory fees to open the way for development of the state’s portion of the Marcellus shale gas deposit.
Otherwise, the Canadian-based independent is faced with a drilling moratorium that will extend to at least next May, while the environmental impacts of shale gas production are examined.
Mark Scheuerman, Talisman’s director of governmental affairs in the United States, told a conference call that New York should follow the example of Pennsylvania which hiked drilling permits by $4,000 per well from $100 to bolster its regulatory system.
The alternative for New York is to miss out on a potential windfall, he said, noting that Talisman’s 13 wells in Pennsylvania will pump $12 million into government coffers.
“We’re not saying we need to trade the economic equation for any unreasonable risk as far as impact at the surface or to other environmental locations,” Scheuerman said.
If the state raises its fees, the Department of Environmental Protection would have the “wherewithal to turn around permits in a commercially acceptable timeframe that we need as a business, but, even more importantly, to exercise their prime directive to being solid environmental stewards,” he said.
Local water use an issue The arm wrestling between Talisman and the state mirrors the battle over the use of local water resources for the drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques needed to exploit shale gas deposits.
Talisman is spending $1 billion this year to develop its Marcellus holdings, all of it in Pennsylvania, and is now producing 190 million cubic feet per day, aiming for 300 million cubic feet per day by year’s end.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying the effects of shale development on water sources, triggering a series of angry public hearings, including the postponement of one session in Syracuse when faced with security concerns.
Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, said there has not been one documented case of hydraulic fracturing contaminating ground water.
Rachel Richler, chairwoman of the Sierra Club’s shale gas task force in New York state, challenged that claim, saying there is ample circumstantial evidence of contamination, but she conceded the fact that tests have not been done before drilling makes it difficult to draw an absolute conclusion on the source of pollution.
—Gary Park
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