Marcellus Shale drillers to begin monthly gas production reporting
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Marie Cusick
Marie Cusick/ StateImpact Pennsylvania
Gas companies previously had to report production figures twice a year. A new law requires monthly reports.
Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale drillers will begin filing monthly production reports next week, to comply with a new law enacted last fall.
Monthly production reports bring Pennsylvania in line with other major gas-producing states. The data was previously collected by the state Department of Environmental Protection twice a year.
Transparency around gas production data has become an issue for some landowners who have questioned the accuracy of their royalty payments. Since royalty checks are typically distributed on a monthly basis, it has been difficult for landowners to compare the information they receive from gas companies with the data posted on DEP’s website, which represented six months of production.
Under the new law, gas production figures will remain a self-reporting system by companies. Although the DEP checks over the numbers for errors, they are not formally audited.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (the statistics arm of the federal Department of Energy) has also said monthly reporting in Pennsylvania would make its job of tracking drilling productivity easier.
The first monthly production reports are due to the DEP on March 31st. The information will represent production from January 2015.
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