Ellwood City, Pennsylvania is on the latest lists of cities to lease property for Marcellus ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock.ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. is one of the most highly productive types of sedimentary rock whose density provides tight stores forhydrocarbon reserves below. Marcellus ShaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. is a rock formationA body of earth material with distinctive and characteristic properties. running through about two-thirds of Pennsylvania, and areas of New York and West Virginia. Geologists estimate that there is a large enough natural gas reserve within the shaleA fine grained sedimentary rock composed mostly of consolidated clay or mud. Shale is the most frequently occurring sedimentary rock. to power the United States for one to eight years. drilling.  The city has approved a lease with Shell Western for underground horizontal drillingHorizontal Drilling is the most rapidly growing movement in the industry. Essentially, in addition to the vertical shaft in an oil or gas well, special equipment allows producers to extend horizontal shafts into areas that could not otherwise be reached. for 131.64 acres of borough owned property running along Connoquenessing Creek.  Lease terms state that Ellwood City will receive $3,250 per acre.

Shell announced earlier this month that they were planning to build an ethane crackerStream cracking plant in the petrochemical industry. Hydrocarbons are transformed into unsaturated hydrocarbons by thermal cracking using steam. plant in Beaver County.

Most of the area being leased is north of the Ellwood City Hospital and in Wayne Township near the Ellwood City Wastewater Treatment Plant.  The lease contains a provision that prohibits any surface activity directly on borough owned property.

Marcellus drilling also places large demands on local water systems – which is why Borough Manager, Dom Viccari, approached Shell with an offer to buy treated water from the Ellwood City Waste Water Treatment Plant.  Approximately 960,000 gallons of water will be drawn up from Slippery Rock Creek to provide the water supply needed in the hydraulic frackingRefers to a method used by producers to extract more natural gas from a well by opening up rock formations using hydraulic or explosive force. process.

$300,000 of the money generated from the lease in Ellwood City will be earmarked to recreational development.