High Natural Gas Prices Spur Drilling Boom in Southern Indiana
Petroleum companies — encouraged by high natural gas prices — are snapping up leases across southern Indiana in hopes of drilling for the gas lying far beneath the land’s surface.
Prices are six dollars or more per 1,000 cubic feet — about double what prices were during the 1990s.
One company already has leased 225,000 acres in the Daviess County area.
Charles Zuppann is a petroleum geologist at the Indiana Geological Survey. He predicts there will be considerably more drilling in the next year or two.
It may be two years before companies know enough about natural gas reserves in the area to determine whether they should invest in production of natural gas.
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