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Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, estimated that it costs the industry about $5 million to bring a well into production. With about 2,200 active wells in the state, that comes to $11 billion in additional investments, mostly over the last four years. The industry is also building or planning billions of dollars of new pipeline construction. Creighton said the minimum royalty in Pennsylvania is 12.5 percent of well revenues, meaning property owners here were paid more than $400 million last year. Gheit said the real value of shale gas is that the lower energy cost is making American industry more competitive around the world. That opens doors for long-term investments, such as Shell Oil's plan to build a huge petrochemical plant in western Pennsylvania. "In my view this is much bigger than anything we've seen in our lives" as far as a new energy development, Gheit said of shale gas. Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the current low natural gas prices benefit consumers throughout the state. "Every single Pennsylvanian has more money in their pocket today -- to save, invest and help make ends meet
-- as a result of plentiful natural gas development from the Marcellus Shale," she said. The AP analysis of production and revenue used data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bentek Energy LLC, and the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
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