MIDDLESEX TWP — Rex Energy announced that horizontal drilling rigs will soon be coming to the Geyer well pad, and work will begin to develop two of the six wells permitted for the Denny Road site.

Pat Creighton, Rex spokesman, said Friday that workers in December completed the vertical drilling on the two wells, and that horizontal drilling now will begin.

The Geyer wells, which are 0.6 miles from the Mars School District property, have been protested by a group of parents in the district and some residents of nearby Weatherburn Heights.

Work stopped at the Geyer site for several months while a series of hearings before the township zoning hearing board took place. The hearings became necessary after five residents and two environmental groups filed an objection to an amendment to the township zoning code that determined where unconventional gas drilling operations could take place.

Work resumed after a Butler County court judge ruled in favor of the amendment.

Creighton said Rex Energy has exceeded requirements to accommodate the school district, such as reducing truck traffic on Route 228 during peak school bus hours, enhancing sound abatement walls at the Geyer well pad to reduce noise, and allowing only right turns from Route 228 into and out of the driveway to the well pad.

“Rex has received all necessary regulatory approvals to develop this location and has met or exceeded all regulatory requirements in the construction of the well pad and related infrastructure,” Creighton said.

The horizontal drilling rigs likely will remain at the Geyer well pad for three weeks, Creighton said. He said seven or eight days are needed to drill each well, plus time for setup and tear-down of the rigs.

He said only two wells are being developed because of the low price of natural gas and other factors.

“When the market conditions improve, we may return to this location for further development,” Creighton said.

Diane Connelly, a resident of Weatherburn Heights, said the vertical drilling at the Geyer property did not cause a disturbance.

“There was barely a noise,” Connelly said. “Nothing annoying or anything.”

She attributed the lack of noise to the sound abatement walls around the well pad.

After the drilling phase is complete, the wells will be hydrofractured to access the natural gas under the shale.