Site Characteristics Associated with Conventional and Unconventional Petroleum Development in West Virginia

Abstract

Little research has been done on the characteristics of surface disturbance between conventional (C) and unconventional (UC) wells in West Virginia. To understand the impacts of petroleum development in West Virginia, a total of 296 conventional wells and 206 unconventional wells were digitized for the purposes of this study. Using a combination of spatial and resource-related data, the total land area impacted, forest fragmentation characteristics, and forest resource impacts were investigated between conventional and unconventional wells. A metric was developed to understand natural gas production per land area disturbed for both conventional and unconventional wells. The absolute magnitude of the footprint associated with the disturbed area of WV forestland in conjunction with four years (2009 to 2012) of gas-production activity was rather modest. An estimated 2,358 hectares were disturbed, of which 1,341 hectares were forested. About 73.3% of the estimated forest area removed was