CANONSBURG – Since its founding in 2008, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to achieve a set of common goals: enhance the region’s economy, responsibly develop natural gas, and advocate for increased use of this clean-burning energy source. The MSC’s Guiding Principles make this commitment clear while also committing the coalition and its members to continuous improvement and transparency across all operations, engaging in a fact-based dialogue with the community, and the implementation of state-of-the-art environmental controls at well sites and compressor stations.
It’s within that organizational structure and context that the MSC, through the work of its nearly two dozen standing committees, will release a number of recommended practices (RP) in the coming months that are designed to provide general guidance for each subject addressed. Ranging in topics from well construction to site restoration, air quality and water management, the MSC’s RPs will assist industry professionals operating in the Appalachian basin in improving their effectiveness in all stages of responsible natural gas exploration and production.
“Continuous improvement is at the core of the natural gas industry,” said MSC Chair Dave Spigelmyer of Chesapeake Energy. “At the direction of our board of directors, the coalition’s staff and committee leadership set out to develop a set of recommended practices that make sense both operationally and from an environmental standpoint. These content-rich guidance documents represent a level of detail and transparency derived from many sources which will be updated and refined as development continues.”
Through months of research, stakeholder outreach, and collaboration amongst MSC member companies, the coalition today releases its first RP, which offers guidance on site planning, development and restoration. Developed by the MSC’s Land Affairs Committee, this RP lays out in detail 11 key steps – beginning with identifying the need for a new well site, compressor station or pipeline, and ending with site monitoring, maintenance and repair – in the site preparation, development and restoration process while offering detailed guidance for each step along the way. To view the recommended practice, click HERE. To view an overview of the guidance document, click HERE.
Said MSC President Kathryn Z. Klaber, “This site planning, development and restoration RP is the culmination of countless hours of work by our land affairs committee to develop a sound document that would be useful not only to operators, but also landowners and other organizations. From site identification, to safety, communications, landowner engagement and eventual reclamation, this guidance document is the first of many that the coalition will release in the coming months – all of which are designed to increase awareness and share ideas and practices that work while continuing to raise the bar on responsible natural gas development across the region.”