CHERRYTREE TWP, Venango County — More than 150 people gathered Thursday at the site of the world’s first oil well to speak out against new state regulations that could harm small oil producers.

Gary Hovis of Kennerdell, Venango County, president of the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers, said at the Drake Well just south of Titusville that the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom that began several years ago in Pennsylvania caused state legislators to begin working up regulations for the new industry.

However, these new regulations, part of Act 13 passed in 2012, also were applied to older conventional oil and gas wells. Now, the state Department of Environmental Protection is proposing even tougher regulations.

Hovis said that conventional wells need separate regulations from deeper drilled and more expensive shale gas wells.

“If this doesn’t happen, it would sign the death warrant of our conventional oil and gas industry,” Hovis said, noting that the DEP will hold public hearings soon on the proposed regulations.

Butler County has about 675 active and inactive conventional wells that produce oil, according to information from the DEP. They primarily are owned by small operators and farmers, and are concentrated in the northern part of the county, although some are scattered elsewhere.

Hovis said that the old style of wells can be drilled in a few days, use 0.1 percent of the water that shale gas wells use and cause minimal truck traffic.

In July, Chris Abruzzo, acting secretary of the DEP, met with Hovis and other PIPP board members to discuss the issue. Earlier this week, Hovis said that he got information from the DEP deputy secretary that suggested the DEP will look into regulating conventional wells separately from newer style wells.

“So, that’s a new revelation,” Hovis said.

John Peterson, who represented the 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1997 to 2009, said that the oil found in the state is paraffin-based oil, which is friendlier to the environment than tar-based oil found in most other locations.

“For 153 years, we’ve been producing Penn Grade crude,” Peterson said.

He noted that the northwest part of the state has clear, trout-filled streams and lots of greenery, despite oil drilling.

“We have to separate oil from shale gas. It has to be separated,” Peterson said.

He said that only two refineries in the United States still process Penn Grade oil, and he said they need more crude oil.

“Northwestern Pennsylvania cannot afford to lose one more job because of state policy,” Peterson said.

Joe Stiglitz, a well service contractor with Allegheny Well Services, said that the newer regulations from a couple years ago already made it harder for small oil producers.

“Because of that, they started slowing down, quite rapidly,” Stiglitz said.

Arthur Stewart of Pennsylvania Grade Crude Coalition, based in Warren, said that 4,000 new oil wells were drilled six years ago. This year, only 1,000 are projected to be drilled.

“This is the state of our industry,” Stewart said.

He said that state regulations would require that the temporary pits located near wells to be larger, which creates more environmental impact.

The regulations also would require wells to be completely secured from intruders. Stewart said this is easy with large shale wells, but it is much harder with small well sites.

He also said that new regulations related to cleaning up production water spills could cost well operators $10,000 to $20,000 per spill. He noted that production water is a natural byproduct of drilling that is chemically similar to sea water.

This contrasts with brine that comes from fracking in shale gas production, which he said has many more chemicals in it.

For more information, visit www.pipponline.com.