First gas site owner sad at news

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.comTimes Leader Staff Writer

FAIRMOUNT TWP. – Next year, a plaque will be laid on Edward Buda’s 140.5 acre property marking the spot where the first natural gas well was drilled in Luzerne County. Some might see it as a historically significant gesture. Buda sees it as a gravestone.

When Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc. announced Thursday that the two exploratory wells it has drilled in the county are unlikely to produce natural gas in commercial quantities, and that the company has, as a result, decided to immediately cease operations in Luzerne and Colombia counties, Buda and hundreds of others of leaseholders saw their potentially big future paydays come to an abrupt end.

For Buda, the news was met with sadness but not shock.

“The lease said ‘exploratory.’ We knew we were going into the unknown. It was a gamble,” said Buda, 76, who lives in Ross Township, eight miles from his other property that’s home to the drilling site.

The dice came up snake eyes on Nov. 10 when an attempt to fracture the Marcellus Shale Formation miles under the site of the Salansky 1H well located on property owned by Amy and Paul Salansky off Zosh Road in Lake Township revealed that the gas deposits might not be as productive as Encana had hoped.

A letter sent to leaseholders on Wednesday and received by most on Thursday revealed the news.

“We recently conducted a fracture stimulation, followed by a production test of the Salansky 1H well, which confirmed our initial findings,” Encana Group Lead for Land Kit Akers said in the letter. “Therefore, … we have decided to discontinue all activity in the area immediately.”

For Buda, the company’s decision will mean the loss of $375,000 due in March to him and the estate of his late brother and sister-in-law. To date, the estate and Buda have only received a combined total of $1,500. But the potential for much, much more was there, until this week.

“It’s kind of sad,” Buda said. “After all this aggravation, not to get anything seems a shame.”

The 20 acre-portion of his property will be brought back to how it looked before the well pad was set last year. He was told by Encana attorneys that the well pad will be taken away in March and reseeding the land will follow. The plaque will be laid, too, he said.

Buda said while it sounds nice, and while he appreciates what Encana tried to do the past two years, it will serve more as a constant reminder of what could have been.

“It’s an epithet. It’s a grave marker. It’s unfinished. You’ll never see gas there, at least not in my lifetime,” Buda said.

He said that while some fellow leaseholders jumped the gun and made purchases with the riches they had yet to realize, his six decades of farming life taught him differently.

“I’ve been a farmer for 60 years. There’s one thing you learn in farming. You never spend money you don’t have,” said Buda.