Tom Wilber writes on Pressconnects.com - “Hess Corp., once a major prospect for natural gas development in Broome County, has set its sights south of the New York and Pennsylvania border.

The multinational energy company, working with Newfield Exploration, will likely begin drilling later this year on 87,000 acres in Wayne and Susquehanna counties, according to landowners and company officials.

Hess and Newfield are part of a broad prospecting rush to the Marcellus Shale, the mega natural gas reserve extending under the Appalachian range and southern New York. Pennsylvania state officials are expecting 5,200 new permits to drill in the Marcellus Shale this year — nearly three times the number of permits issued in all of 2009, according to information from the state Department of Environmental Protection.”

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