Petitt had test wells drilled and made the necessary investment in water rights, lawyers and experts.
If test wells prove safe and economic, commercial methane production could begin as early as 2016.
But firms will be penalised if they fail to drill the promised test wells.
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Last year Chevron announced that test wells drilled 29, 000 feet deep into Buckskin found oil-bearing sands 300 feet thick.
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But in Poland, which may have Europe's largest reserves, companies are busily sinking test wells to see what is there.
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Cairn says it has found natural gas in thin sandlayers in one of its test wells, indicating the presence of oil.
But Adrian Kuzminski, a fracking opponent with the group Sustainable Otsego, said he fears that the test wells Cuomo has been considering would be "a stalking horse" for more drilling.
Following a decade of dry test wells, the bids represent a step forward for the country, even if it only manages to produce enough product to ease their own domestic demand.
But in the UK, the use of fracking was halted in 2011 after some minor earthquakes near Blackpool, Lancashire, were attributed to test wells being drilled by the energy company Cuadrilla.
Cuomo confirmed that he'd spoken with the environmental activist himself an opponent of fracking unless it can be proven safe but maintained that no approval of limited test wells was coming before their conversation.
The Associated Press reported over the weekend that Kennedy and two officials familiar with Cuomo's thinking nearly a month ago said Cuomo had come closer than ever to deciding to approve limited test wells, although Cuomo hadn't made the decision.
Kennedy and two other people close to Cuomo, who spoke to the AP only on condition of anonymity because Cuomo is carefully guarding his discussions on the issue, confirmed the outlines of the plan the governor was considering to allow 10 to 40 test wells in economically depressed southern New York towns that want drilling and the jobs it promises.
They test nearby water wells to determine the level of naturally-occurring methane and other contamination before and after drilling in order to ensure that their drilling and completion activities have not caused any issues.
The engineers have done a beautiful job with wind and tire noise, opting for big acoustic blankets in the wheel wells, which quelled the roar coming from our test car's 19-inch summer tires.
Yancopoulos, Regeneron's chief scientist, says he heard about the possibilities in treating Muckle-Wells and made an "impassioned plea" to Novartis to test Regeneron's drug for that malady.
In Marshall County, West Virginia, Consol has begun work on a field test to determine the viability of injecting carbon dioxide permanently into coalbed methane wells 1, 500 feet underground.
And though the company earlier had spurned a biotech firm's proposal to jointly study Muckle-Wells, Wright convinced his bosses that the obscure disorder was the perfect test-bed for the new compound.
Only one of the 40 wells drilled by others into the Wilcox Sands in mile deep water has ever had a flow test.
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