2019 Summary & Trends - Oil, Gas and Solution Mining
Division of Mineral Resources Annual Report
The New York State Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources 2019 Annual Report (PDF) provides an overview of the oil and gas industry in NY, including permits and well completions, production, state land leasing, underground gas storage, solution mining, and well plugging activities. It also provides an overview of the mining industry and mined land reclamation in NY, including mine types and permits, geographic occurrence, owner types, trends, acreage statistics, reclamation, financial security, and enforcement.
Production, Market Value and Economic Impact
New York State natural gas production in 2019 was 11.1 billion cubic feet (bcf), up approximately 5% from the previous year. Trenton-Black River production was about the same as 2018 at 2.6 bcf, accounting for about 24% of 2019 gas production. Gas production from the Medina decreased by nearly 2% to 5.5 bcf, accounting for nearly 50% of 2019 gas production. Oil production increased approximately 23% from the previous year to 277,232 barrels (bbls) in 2019.
The oil and gas produced in New York State in 2019 is valued at an estimated $44.2 million. Approximately $1.3 million was generated for local government taxes, and nearly $5.5 million was generated in royalties for landowners.
Wells
In 2019, New York well operators reported 14,897 wells (all regulated well types). Most of these wells were drilled to explore for and/or produce oil or natural gas. Other regulated well types reported in the 2019 total include underground gas storage, solution salt mining, geothermal, brine disposal, monitoring, and stratigraphic. The total number of wells completed increased 90% from the previous year to 148 in 2019.
In 2019, a total of 194 operators reported 2,971 wells with no (zero) production for the entire year. This is in addition to over 4,000 orphaned and unplugged wells in DEC's records.
At the end of 2019, New York held $20.26 million in financial security to guarantee well plugging and site reclamation.
Regulatory Activity
In 2019, the DEC's Division of Mineral Resources (DMN or Division) issued 188 drilling permits, and operators plugged 90 wells in accordance with DMN-issued plugging permits. In addition, 95 abandoned wells were plugged by DMN and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Total drilled depth of the wells for the year was approximately 220,150 feet (or almost 42 miles).
No compulsory integration hearings were conducted in 2019.
Division of Mineral Resources' Oil and Gas staff traveled 95,635 miles to perform 7,590 inspections in 2019. Staff inspect well sites:
- during permit application review;
- during drilling and plugging work, with emphasis on cementing operations;
- to ensure regulatory requirements are followed and that violations, if any, are remediated;
- during production and prior to ownership transfers to ensure compliance;
- to score abandoned wells to assess relative threat to the environment and public safety in support of well plugging initiatives;
- to ensure that reclamation meets requirements; and
- to investigate complaints.
