One of the newest players in Butler County’s shale gas market is ramping up for an ambitious 2014 after preparing its first three well sites this year.

In fact, EdgeMarc Energy Holdings, a Washington County-based gas exploration and production company formed in 2012, has made Butler County its starting point and No. 1 priority.

Stacey Lucas, who handles the company’s health, safety and environmental regulatory compliance and permitting, said Butler County, specifically the northeastern quadrant, became the company’s starting point as land acquisition and permitting progressed during the company’s first year and a half.

In total, EdgeMarc has about 50,000 acres under lease in Pennsylvania and Ohio. All those holdings are concentrated in Butler County in Pennsylvania and Washington and Monroe counties in Ohio.

Since its start, EdgeMarc has invested about $200 million in partnership with funds managed by Goldman Sachs, the multinational investment banking firm in New York.

Lucas said one of the company’s largest projects is a 17-mile, $30 million pipeline that will run across the county to carry gas from EdgeMarc’s wells to the market.

She said engineering and environmental work for the project is being wrapped up while right of way agreements are being acquired from landowners.

During the second half of this year, EdgeMarc started moving from the acquisition and pre-development phase of its plan to the development and operation phase as it built its first three well sites.

Its land holdings are concentrated in the northeastern quadrant of the county, which, to this point, has mostly been untapped.

One site is on the border of Oakland and Concord townships, just a couple miles northwest of the Oneida Valley Reservoir. It is under construction.

Another site is a few miles north on Boydstown Road in Concord Township. A well on that site has been drilled and tested and will be completed when the pipeline is in place.

The third site is in Allegheny Township just east of Eau Claire, and drilling of a well was completed in October.

To date, EdgeMarc has operated without incident or violation, according to state Department of Environmental Protection records.

Callum Streeter, EdgeMarc’s drilling manager, said the company’s acreage here is in the “wet gas window” of the Marcellus, Utica and Upper Devonian shale formations deep underground that hold vast deposits of natural gas.

Wet gas refers to gas that has a high Btu content and contains other compounds such as ethane, butane and propane that are separated at facilities and sold. With the low market price of natural gas, producing wet gas is more profitable because those additional substances fetch additional money on the market.

Streeter said EdgeMarc plans to use a third party to process the gas it produces.

In 2014, Lucas said EdgeMarc plans to drill about 25 wells and start construction of the pipeline.

Through 2017, the company plans to drill about 175 wells in its leased acreage, she said.

“Many people do not realize how capital intense it is to develop and produce shale wells and the lag time involved before revenue starts to flow, which is overwhelmingly reinvested into additional production activities across the industry,” she said.

While EdgeMarc is a new name in the energy industry, the industry is nothing new for its leadership or employees.

Edgewater Energy Partners, an oil and gas investment group in Texas, drove the formation of EdgeMarc, which is led by a board of directors. Of the six board members, all have extensive professional and leadership experience in the energy industry.

However, EdgeMarc remains managed by professionals who have been working in Pennsylvania since the start of the shale boom.

According to Lucas and Streeter, that is what EdgeMarc hopes helps it continue to carve out a niche: a small company with large company expertise that is able to focus on working with landowners.

Streeter and Lucas said EdgeMarc originally was intended to be a small venture. However, as land acquisition progressed much faster than anticipated, the company grew beyond its original projection.

It now employs 22 people and recently restructured to prepare for more growth.

Lucas said, “We have a focused plan for Butler County and eastern Ohio that will be carried out effectively and safely and in a way that enhances our local economy and protects our environment.”