An Indication Why New York State Has Been Ambivalent Regarding The Marcellus

[Note: I don't want to get too far off course from the Bakken, but if folks are curious about the "wet" natural gas industry, the current corporate presentation by Range Resources is outstanding. In the post below, I was only concentrating on one small story line. In fact, the entire presentation is full of "wet" natural gas data, some of which is applicable to the Bakken.]

***************************

It's always been an enigma to me why New York State has been so ambivalent about fracking. Yes, I know the environmental / political controversy regarding fracking, but when there is a lot of money involved, sane men and women usually come to some sort of compromise. But, so far, New York State has not moved on approving fracking, though there are stories that New Yorkers may yet see fracking in their state.

Assuming there are sane men and women in New York, one has to ask the question why the state ha not come up with some sort of compromise.

Take a look at Range Resources' most recent corporate presentation, which can be found at the company's website.

Go to slides 11 - 14 of that October, 2013, presentation (I assume this presentation will change in the next month or so).

The map shows very little of the surrounding states, but even so, it is obviously the "Marcellus" and "Pennsylvania" are almost synonymous. The Marcellus extends into Ohio and West Virginia, but nothing compared to Pennsylvania.

But here's the bigger story: not only does it hardly extend into New York, what little extension there is into New York, the gas in place (GIP) is not very impressive.

This suggests a reason why the governor has been ambivalent about fracking: there may not be all that much reason to go after the gas in New York State. It may not be worth the political cost. It's very clear, God favored Pennsylvania when it came to oil and gas.

Again, there has been a lot written about the ban on fracking in New York State. Like all the hand-wringing on flaring in North Dakota, fracking in New York State is a red herring, or a McGuffin.

*****************************

For investors, the Range Resources presentation is very interesting.  Range Resources has 540,000 acres in the Marcellus; with assumed spacing of 80-acre units, Range has about 6,750 potential Marcellus Shale locations. Range has drilled only 7% of their potential locations.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.