Cherry Valley, Schenevus Tests Seek To Discover Size of Supply

By JIM KEVLIN

---

COOPERSTOWN

Did Orville Cole say more than he intended?
The village Board of Water Commissioners was meeting Monday, July 14, to determine whether to sell Covalent Energy Corp. (through its allied company, Gastem USA of Montreal), three chunks of 99,000 gallons each by the end of August to bore three test wells for natural gas, one each in Cherry Valley, Springfield and the Town of Maryland (near Schenevus).
In the end, the commissioners voted 3-1 to sell the water, despite concerns raised about damage of heavy trucks to village streets. The village trustees will make the final decision when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 21, at 22 Main. More significant, perhaps, were the insights Cole, Gastem president, offered into what natural-gas wildcatters who have been scouting Otsego County for the past couple of years have in mind.
The goal of these three wells, he said, is to determine the scope of the possible natural-gas field under and around Otsego Lake. If the field is determined to be commercially viable, the idea will be to drive wells, two per square mile, all along the 18-mile stretch between the northern and southern ends.
That would add up to about 140 wells, he said. “If we are successful,” he said, “there will be more sites. If we are not successful, we’ll be somewhere else.”

Labels: Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling