PADEP: You take our numbers, you take your chances

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection is the public source for information on how much natural gas is being extracted from the Marcellus Shale. Their biannual reports are eagerly anticipated by market investors and drilling companies.

Which is why the agency's latest report has created somewhat of an uproar. 

It turns out that the state failed to include any production numbers from Chesapeake Energy, a large producer.

Worse, the DEP report failed to note the absence.

 "This is totally unprofessional. Fadel Gheit, an oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York City, told the Associated Press.

Gheit said that DEP at least had the responsibility to let investors and industry know the posted production totals were incomplete, since financial markets and energy companies use them for long-term decisions involving billions of dollars

And what was DEP's reaction?  Shock? Embarrassment? Contrition? 

Not a bit. 

"Any analysis is incumbent upon the user to make his own interpretations," DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday said in a statement Monday.

Caveat emptor, PADEP style.

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