The natural gas industry continues to boom in Butler County.

According to state Department of Environmental Protection records, 85 unconventional natural gas wells have been drilled this year in the county.

With four months remaining in the year, that total will likely surpass the 92 wells drilled in 2013 — a year that had 30 wells drilled from September through December.

While there are multiple companies drilling in the county, a few drillers lead the way in active wells and land covered.

Leased land

Rex Energy is the largest in terms of area. The State College based company has about 167,000 leased acres in the county.

The recent purchase of Royal Dutch Shell natural gas leases more than doubled Rex Energy’s acreage.

Mike Endler, vice president for the Appalachian region at Rex Energy, said the county has significant potential in natural gas drilling.

“Butler County is the core to Rex Energy’s Appalachian operating area,” he said. “It’s an area that has tremendous production potential for the next 10 to 20 years and beyond.”

Rex Energy on Aug. 12 announced it bought the leases of about 208,000 acres from Shell for $120 million. The deal included about 91,000 acres in the county.

Most of that acreage from Shell is in the northwestern part of the county in Slippery Rock, Worth, Mercer and Cherry townships.

Rex Energy previously had been operating mostly in the western and southwestern parts of the county.

XTO Energy is the other company with a strong presence in the county with about 60,000 leased acres, according to spokeswoman Amy Dobkin.

XTO, an ExxonMobil subsidiary, has much of its land in the south central and southeastern side of the county, including Summit, Penn, Jefferson, and Buffalo townships, but it also spans west to Forward and Connoquenessing townships.

While Rex Energy and XTO may be the most noticeable drillers, they’re not alone in the industry.

EdgeMarc Energy has locked up 23,000 leased acres, much of which is in the northeastern part of the county, while PennEnergy Resources has land in the southeastern corner of the county.

Well drilling continues

While Rex Energy has the most leased land, it also had the most producing wells through the first six months of this year, according to the DEP.

Rex Energy has about 90 producing wells. The horizontal wells, which lie beneath the surface, stem from about 50 producing well pads.

Endler said each well pad can have multiple wells. His company’s pads range from one to seven wells.

The DEP lists 150 active unconventional well pads in the county. There have been 317 unconventional wells drilled since 2010, according to DEP reports. About 180 of those were producing during the first six months of this year.

Rex Energy expects to drill about 40 wells in its Butler Operated Area by the end of the year. That area includes Butler and the surrounding counties.

“Going forward, we anticipate that our Butler County well development program will remain robust and grow, as we are committed to safely and responsibly developing our leasehold in the region,” Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for Rex Energy, said in a statement.

XTO has about 70 producing wells in the county, Dobkin said.

She added the company anticipates adding about 20 wells this year.

EdgeMarc has five wells producing with another 16 wells in different stages of completion or waiting to be tied into its pipeline, according to spokeswoman Katy Gresh.

PennEnergy Resources is the fourth company that has producing horizontal wells in the county. It has eight producing wells in Clinton Township, according to DEP reports.

The company did not respond this week to requests for an interview.

The county also is home to six other drillers who combined had 18 producing vertical wells during the first six months of the year, according to the DEP.

Processing facilities

Gas companies also depend on miles of pipeline and processing facilities to produce the natural gas products.

Both Rex Energy and EdgeMarc use the MarkWest Keystone complex in Jackson Township. It has three processing facilities which combined provide 210 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity and 26,500 barrels per day of fractionation capacity.

MarkWest recently announced plans to build two more facilities to meet the growing needs of Rex Energy and EdgeMarc. The new facilities will triple the processing capability at the Keystone Complex. Rex Energy looks to eventually reach 405 million cubic feet per day with the addition.

XTO has its own cryogenic processing plant in Penn Township. The 340-acre complex is fed by two other gas compression stations in Forward and Jefferson townships and it has about 40 miles of pipeline.

The company also is seeking a compressor station in Summit Township.

“Compression is a real important part of what we do,” Dobkin said. “It moves gas from the well pad to the processing facilities and ultimately to the user.”

The Penn cryogenic plant is designed to process 125 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

“The (cryogenic) plant pulls natural gas methane from the natural gas liquids,” Dobkin said. “All (the gases) are then sold on the market.”

Methane, which is used to heat homes, is considered a dry gas. The facilities also are able to process wet gases such as butane, propane, and ethane.

Dobkin said as XTO continues to grow and produce more wells, the need for more compressor stations likely will be needed.

“XTO really is a great asset for Butler County,” Dobkin said. “The infrastructure we have and are building here will only continue our success in the county.”

Perhaps the largest project by EdgeMarc right now is the 22-mile pipeline spanning from the MarkWest’s Bluestone II facility to northeastern Butler County.

Callum Streeter, EdgeMarc’s operations manager, said the pipeline has been built with the highest safety standards in mind.

“As with all of our operations, EdgeMarc has utilized the highest environmental, public health and safety standards to construct the 16-inch-diameter pipeline with locally produced steel. We are complying with, and seek to exceed, all state and federal regulations,” she said in an e-mail.

The growth of the industry is ongoing in the county.

Last month the DEP issued 24 new unconventional gas well permits, while drilling on seven new wells began.