CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The media in some parts of the state won't tell any good stories about natural gas so the industry is buying advertisements to tell its side, said Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.
"The problem is, in certain areas, nobody wants to write the story that's coming from us," DeMarco told University of Charleston business students, alumni, and invited guests on Tuesday. "They want to write the sensational, the fictional."
Natural gas drilling in the Appalachian basin has become a high-profile business during the past several years as companies learned how to drill horizontal wells and fracture, or "frack," the Marcellus Shale to release natural gas.
The new drilling know-how is re-shaping the industry. There's talk that the Marcellus Shale gas field may contain 500 trillion cubic feet of gas. Instead of talking about running out of natural gas within 10 years - a prevalent discussion within the industry in the 1970s - the discussion is about having up to 90 years of proven and potential supply.
Fracturing shale formations uses lots of water and sand and some chemicals. Concerns have been raised about the volume of water used and its disposal; truck traffic in drilling areas; surface owners' rights; and safety. In the past four months there have been two well fires and an explosion at drilling operations in Marshall County.
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