For Marcellus Drillers, Profits Rise

Susan Phillips

Recent Stories

Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

February 27, 2013 | 4:09 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A Cabot drilling rig, located in Susquehanna County.

Good news seems to keep pouring in for Pennsylvania’s shale drillers. Last week, Cabot Oil and Gas reported record production volumes and earnings for 2012.
Speaking at a hearing in Philadelphia City Council Wednesday afternoon, David Yoxheimer, from the Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, says Marcellus wells produced 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2012, representing 10 percent of the nation’s annual demand. And this afternoon, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on how Range Resources did last year.

“During the fourth quarter, the Southern Marcellus Shale Division brought 30 horizontal wells online alone, taking advantage of the liquid-rich area of southwest Pennsylvania. An additional eight wells were drilled and cased in the northeast Marcellus during the fourth quarter. The company met its year-end production target of 600 Mmcfe per day. Range Resources had a total of $1.5 billion in revenue for the year, marking an 18 percent increase over 2011.”

Meanwhile, Range continues to take an aggressive stance toward critics and lawsuits. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the drilling company has asked a Washington County judge to recuse himself because Range says the judge’s wife is an anti-drilling activist.