Black Gold Rush: Boom and Bust and Boom Again in Pennsylvania. By Rupert Cornwell, London Independent, May 27, 2008. "The big energy companies are back in Pennsylvania, seeking oil and, more importantly, gas. Already Pennsylvania has more stripper natural gas wells than any other state, and its proven gas reserves are half the U.S. total. In the woods new wells are being drilled. Farmers who own the 'OMG' (oil, mineral and gas) rights are leasing land to the companies for $2,500/acre/year, compared with $25 a decade ago, and get production royalties on top of that. In five years, production of the waxy, paraffin-rich crude from Pennsylvania's Appalachian basin field has shot up 50% to 3.8 million barrels. But experts reckon that two-thirds of the oil that was there when Drake drilled his way into history is still in the ground. Once it wasn't worth bothering with, but no longer. Rock Well Petroleum, a Canadian company, has plans not only to drill scores of new wells, but to dig huge underground caverns to collect the oil and pump it to the surface. There's just one problem, however: what to do with the brine that comes with the oil, especially from older wells. McClintock No 1, for instance, now delivers 300 barrels of brine for every barrel of oil."
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