This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

January 19, 2008

Cabot Oil & Gas sues state over Chief Logan drilling rejection

By Ken Ward Jr. Staff writer

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has challenged a decision by the Manchin administration to reject the company’s plan to drill nearly three dozen new natural gas wells inside Chief Logan State Park.

Lawyers for Cabot filed a petition Jan. 11 in Logan Circuit Court over the state Department of Environmental Protection permit denial.

The nine-page petition alleges the DEP misapplied a state law that generally prohibits “extraction of minerals ... on or under any state park.”

DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer cited the law when she turned down Cabot’s first five permit applications in mid-December.

The company’s court petition asks Logan Circuit Judge Roger L. Perry to overturn the DEP’s decision and approve the drilling permits.

Cabot attorney Timothy M. Miller argued that the drilling petition cited by the DEP is meant to apply only to minerals that are owned by the state.

“To apply it otherwise would deprive the mineral owners of their private property rights,” Miller said in the company’s petition.

Miller also argues the law gives the state Division of Natural Resources — not the DEP Office of Oil and Gas — authority to block drilling for publicly owned minerals at parks.

Cabot holds lease agreements for gas under the 3,600-acre park. The gas is owned by the heirs of Anthony Lawson, one of the first English settlers in what is now Logan County.

DEP general counsel Raymond Franks said his agency has until Jan. 28 to file its permit decision record with the court. No further schedule for the case has yet been set, Franks said.

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.