By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 24 -- CNX Gas Corp., Pittsburgh, said its 2008 capital budget includes exploration for gas in Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga, and New Albany shales and the Trenton-Black River dolomite in the eastern US.
The overall plan is for a 35% spending increase to $470 million, of which $377 million will go toward the drilling, midstream, and land operations in the company's Virginia and Pennsylvania coalbed methane development projects.
CNX Gas will drill 300 CBM development wells in Virginia, 100 in Mountaineer, and 100 in Nittany. Each exceeds the 2007 program.
The other $88 million includes $27 million for CBM exploration, $46 million for shale and other exploration, and $15 million for land. Some conventional sand horizons will be tested for the presence of oil.
The company sees shale potential in the Marcellus on 16,000 acres in New York, 41,000 acres in Pennsylvania, 26,000 acres in West Virginia, and 78,000 acres in Ohio; in the Huron shale on 193,000 acres in Kentucky and West Virginia; in the Chattanooga shale on 132,000 acres in Tennessee; and in the New Albany shale on 300,000 acres in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
