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State commissions study on gas drilling in Bucks, MontCo

As promised, the state has commissioned a study to assess how much drillable natural gas exists beneath Bucks and Montgomery counties.

In 2012, state lawmakers mandated that no drilling permits could be issued in those counties until such a study is completed or until 2018.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hired Penn State for the job, which will include a review of existing private industry data, DCNR spokeswoman Chris Novak said.

The U.S. Geological Survey in 2011 estimated that 876 billion cubic feet of gas sits in a rock formation that stretches from Bucks and Montgomery counties to northern New Jersey. That's a fraction of the 141 trillion cubic contained in the Marcellus Shale, which has spawned a gas rush in northern and western Pennsylvania.

As Inquirer reporter Sandy Bauers has noted before, industry experts aren't predicting a big gas rush in suburban Philadelphia. But smaller energy companies for years have been interested in drilling in Nockamixon.