By Shelly Williams and Frances Matteck/se news editor and editor-in-chief

A new rig erected on SE Campus in March is not a gas drilling rig but a workover rig, said Sarah Griffis, public affairs coordinator for Chesapeake Energy, which conducts the SE Campus drilling.

A workover rig is much smaller than the rig that drills wells.

“The workover rig cleans out the wells so fracing can take place,” she said. “Fracing allows for the gas to be released from the Barnett Shale as it is an extremely tight rock that will not emit the gas solely through the drilling process.”

After the workover rig is finished, the well will be capped, said SE Campus plant manager Joseph Gonzalez.

“Once they’ve capped it, and let’s say they already have their bores done, they can leave what they have in place and then wait to cap the next one they have drilled,” he said.

The wells will remain capped until pipe is laid down to transport the gas.

Four wells have been drilled on SE Campus, but none of them are producing flowing gas as of yet because pipeline is not connected.

Neither Gonzalez nor Griffis had a timeline for installation of the pipeline, but two of the wells have already completed the fracing process and are capped at this time.