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Natural Gas Natural Gas and PetroleumNew York State has been a natural gas and petroleum producer since the 1800s. Today, indigenous natural gas production is approaching 5% of New York’s natural gas demand. Though a small percentage, natural gas production can have major economic impacts on localities. Production wells provide landowner royalties and provide schools and governments with property tax payments. By increasing exploration and production of natural gas in New York, the State's energy dollars stay here rather than flow to the Southwestern states and Canada. Also, natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, helping improve New York’s air quality. There is relatively little environmental risk associated with oil and gas exploration and production in New York State. Drilling operations tend to be on a small scale and of short duration. Concerns over potential risks such as water well contamination, fires, vehicular traffic and noise are legitimate, but the existence of oversight agencies, regulations, permitting requirements and modern drilling practices reduce the likelihood of their occurrence. A reclamation program is required for any disturbance of the land. Upon production, the actual wellhead is quite small and unobtrusive. NYSERDA'S Role: NYSERDA's role is to work with New York's industry to reduce the risk associated with using new technologies for exploration and drilling and identify new resources. NYSERDA’s support for hydrocarbon exploration dates back to the Authority’s inception in 1975. Early support included the Eastern Gas Shales Program, Trenton Limestone exploration and the Auburn geothermal/natural gas well. However, today’s consistently funded program resulted from the 1994 NYSERDA review. Today, NYSERDA remains unique as the only state-supported, industry-driven research and development program Well Development Process NYSERDA supports projects in six areas: 1) exploration support to identify new resources, 2) production improvement, 3) innovative technology development, 4) natural gas storage expansion, 5) environmental performance and 6) outreach. Most production improvement projects are completed through the Stripper Well Consortium Funded by NYSERDA and USDOE, the SWC is an industry-driven consortium that is focused on the development, demonstration, and deployment of new technologies needed to improve the production performance of natural gas and petroleum stripper wells. |
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© 2004 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority |
