After a well has been drilled and hydraulically fractured, production equipment is installed. Once the well is connected to the necessary midstream pipeline infrastructure and begins producing natural gas, areas of the well site that are no longer needed are removed and subsequently reclaimed. To learn more about these reclamation efforts, please review our Recommended Practice on Site Planning, Development and Restoration.
To your second question, and as you may know, shale gas wells are expected to produce for decades, perhaps as long as 40-years, if not longer. A great deal of daily maintenance and monitoring of producing wells is carried out, to ensure environmental protection. What’s more, the Marcellus Shale is considered to be potentially the world’s second largest natural gas field in the world. So while natural gas production activities will of course ebb and flow over time, the Marcellus represents a generational opportunity for the Commonwealth and for our nation.
