MARCELLUS AIR WV - Aerial photos of Marcellus Shale drilling and gas production in West Virginia

MARCELLUS AIR WV takes you over the Marcellus Shale into northern parts of West Virginia. This flight will give you an idea of what it is like to produce natural gas and its byproducts from the mountainous terrain in and around Wetzel County, WV.

Aerial photos of fracking, wastewater impoundments, compressor stations, and active drilling operations, as well as newly excavated drilling pads and completed Marcellus Shale wells.

Drilling pad above the foggy valleys

Vehicles and personnel trailers along left side of pad

Mountaintop drilling location creates some massive slopes

Another Marcellus drilling location in the same vicinity.
Yoho site.

$Drilling location and frac fluid tanks$

Fluid tanks are clustered in an area on the right, with white
condensate tanks grouped in the woods in between

Large area excavated for gas drilling in West Virginia

Massive area of soil excavation along this WV ridgeline by Rt 89.
Floyd B. Johnson drilling pad (top)
Larry G. Rine pad (bottom)

Close-up of drilling location at northern end

Condensate tanks on Marcellus Shale location

Battery of white condensate tanks and a
white 'heater treater' to right center

Larry G. Rine drilling pad
Three wells in center of pad and multiple square fluid tanks.

Another drilling location cut-out of the woods

Two well heads in center of pad

Looks like a city on a hill, but it's an active fracking location

$Dust rising from WV frac site$

Dust rising from mixer area (center of photo) during fracking

$West Virginia fracking party$

Multiple truck mounted pumps create the high pressure
needed to fracture Marcellus Shale

Frack equipment clustered on drilling pad in West Virginia

Frac sand trucks and trailers on left,
frac pumps clustered around center

Seven wellheads in a row at center of photo

Seven well heads in a row in center of photo with frac chemicals
along lower corner of pad on the ground and on trucks

Drilling location lined with personnel trailers

Northern West Virginia Marcellus Shale drilling

Closer look at West Virginia drilling location

Drilling location with nearby fluid impoundment

Restored Marcellus drilling location

Initial stages of drilling at another WV location

Long access road cut along slope to reach location

Restored West Virginia drilling location

Restored drilling location

New gas drilling pad cut out of West Virginia timber

New drilling pad awaiting drilling rig

Large Marcellus drilling rig drilling horizontal Marcellus wells

Blake Ridge area. Impoundment 3 is right above Rte 89.
4 locations related to gas drilling can be seen in this part of northern West Virginia. Once infrastructure pipelines are in place, many states see an "in fill" with more drilling sites and wells added in between.

Condensate tank battery and a black-lined impoundment for flowback

White 'bathtub ring' on fluid pit indicates storage of recycled fluids

$West Virginia impoundment for Marcellus Shale fracking$

Mountainous terrain creates problems when finding
areas to build large fluid impoundment dams

White stains on impoundment liner indicate flowback or produced water was stored here

This pit has some wastewater "bathtub ring" around the edges

Impoundment appears to be built in a flood plain or wetlands area

Marcellus drilling site and square impoundment

Drilling location and square impoundment dam

Close-up of gas drilling location

Marcellus 'Baptismal Fount'
c. 2010

Piping the gas to market in other states

Water crossings call for extra protection in 'buffer areas'

Gas pipeline being laid in a low area along a stream

More pipeline construction

Pipeline connecting West Virginia and
Pennsylvania processing facilities

Aerial view of pipeline excavation

How is West Virginia drilling affecting natural waterways?

Looks like a new impoundment dam breastworks in this valley

Impoundment constructed along the banks of a stream

Pleasant Ridge Compressor Station.
Newly produced Marcellus Shale gas has to be moved
to market using compressor stations to push it
through pipelines

New construction on 12-unit compressor station and gas processing facility

Construction of Pleasant Ridge 12-compressor station
and processing facility

Compressor station sits on top of a WV ridgeline

It remains to be seen what will be built on the upper plateau

Gas compressors and processing equipment

The 12-unit Pleasant Ridge compressor station (above)
and the 6-unit Miller compressor station (below) are
mentioned in the newspaper article below

6-compressor station being built close to 12-compressor station in West Virginia

Miller Compressor Station.
This 6-compressor station (plus 12-compressors in the photo above) in the news:

NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. -- An air quality permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Air Quality allows Chesapeake Energy to operate 18 compressors within a 3-mile area. The permit is being challenged by a group of Wetzel County landowners who are concerned about air pollution, and a hearing on the appeal is tentatively set for Jan. 5, 2011.

Marcellus gas drilling and processing all in one area!

Fort Beeler cryogenic processing facility in Marshall County
next to a drilling location

Caiman Energy's Fort Beeler cryogenic processing facility.
Processing of 'wet' Marcellus gas by cryogenic facilities removes
profitable liquids such as ethane, butane and propane leaving
'dry' methane gas