West Virginia state government studies their options on opening their 42,000 acres of mineral rights beneath state forest lands to Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Those leases would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in lease and royalty payments. More at Forbes.com.

Drillers are now starting fewer wells – but those wells are a lot more expensive. State revenues from natural gas drilling are increasing. Electric utilities are switching from coal to gas. An article at Herald-Dispatch explores these and more.

A New York Times article looks at some of the recent large investments in the Marcellus Shale Gas Field and quotes an industry estimate of 30,000 new wells drilled in the next ten years.

An article on The Daily Sentinel website reports that the Marcellus shale might yield $8 billion in natural gas in 2010, produce $785 million in state and local taxes, and produce 44,000 new jobs.

An article on the Reuters.com website reports that Chesapeake Energy plans to sell about 20% of its Marcellus Shale Assets for over $2 billion.

In this video CONSOL Energy CEO, Brett Harvey, talks about the company’s purchase of natural gas assets from Dominion Resources. He seems to think highly of the potential for natural gas. A quote: “Natural Gas will be the chosen fuel.” (Consol already owns a lot of coal mines between the surface and the Marcellus Shale which create conflicting land use problems when drilling for natural gas.)

A free webinar titled: “The Impact of Marcellus Shale: What Do the Economic Impact Studies Imply?” is scheduled for Thursday, March 18th at 1:00 PM and hosted by the Penn State Cooperative Extension. You can register on their website.

The Headline article in the West Virginia Observer gives a review of the objections to hydraulic fracturing and discusses potential actions by the West Virginia legislature aimed at protecting public health and the environment.

An AP article in the Charleston Daily Mail says that “gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct” – in reference to the wastewater associated with hydraulic fracturing.

An article on the Oil and Gas Journal website reports that the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan is considering a stake in the Marcellus Shale gas play. Last year they invested in Barnett Shale acreage.

An article on the Oil and Gas Journal website gives a detailed presentation on the huge number of opportunities that still exist in the Marcellus Shale gas play.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy says that they are the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale play with 1.45 million acres net. They are the most active driller in the play with 15 rigs and they expect to be the largest natural gas producer from the play by the end of 2009 with 80 mmcfe net per day. And they have increased their average per well yield projection from 3.75 bcfe to 4.2 bcfe.

A private landowner in West Virginia leased drilling rights to a natural gas company then transferred the property to a state park system. Now the state says the gas company is not allowed to drill. More in the Houston Chronicle.

An article at RigZone profiles the Marcellus Shale holdings and activities of Range Resources. Range was one of the first companies to aggressively buy Marcellus leases and now has significant holdings.

National Fuel Gas has been drilling wells into the Marcellus Shale and the yields from those wells seem to be increasing as their methods improve. They speculate about Marcellus Shale wells that yield 40 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. More in the Buffalo News.