Range Organizes Safety Drill for First Responders

RANGE RESOURCES CORPORATION (NYSE: RRC) announced that it has posted a video to its website describing a first-of-its kind, large-scale safety drill in the Marcellus Shale play recently conducted in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. State Senator Gene Yaw filmed and produced the video and is sharing it with multiple outlets in order to benefit first responders across the state. Senator Yaw is a member of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee and represents Lycoming, Bradford, Susquehanna, Union and Sullivan counties where drilling is occurring in the Marcellus Shale play.

Range, along with the Lycoming County Oil and Gas Task Force, organized the preparedness drill to help public safety officials better understand the Marcellus Shale drilling process. The event took place September 19, 2009 on a Range drill site in northeastern Pennsylvania. Approximately 120 first-responders were in attendance. State, local and county emergency responders were involved, as well as the state Department of Environmental Protection. Range underwrote the effort.

State Senator Gene Yaw commented, "I was extremely impressed with the divergent group of professionals that participated in this exercise, drawing from the local first responder groups in the area and the medical community as far away as Philadelphia. Range did an exceptional job as the pioneering company in the Marcellus Shale in demonstrating how to bring together all the various constituencies to learn and work together to develop our Commonwealth’s resources. As a member of the Oil and Gas Task Force, I am excited about the economic benefits natural gas drilling will bring to our state, but I am committed, just as Range is, to seeing this resource developed responsibly. I commend Range for initiating this drill, which can serve as a template for educating public safety workers in all areas of the state.”

"Many emergency workers in this part of the state have never been on a drill site. We wanted to provide a hands-on experience allowing them to practice maneuvering around drilling equipment, while exposing them to multiple potential rescue scenarios. While we have an excellent safety record with zero emergency incidents in our first five years of drilling in the Marcellus, our goal is to ensure that public safety workers are knowledgeable about our operations and well-equipped for an expedient response. Other operators have since joined with us in this educational effort, which we would like to see implemented in other areas of the state,” said Range’s Regional Director of Health, Safety and Environment, Ralph Tijerina.

Range was the first company to use modern style drilling and completion techniques to successfully drill to the Marcellus Shale in 2004. Since then other natural gas companies have moved into Pennsylvania and are actively drilling the Marcellus Shale formation.

RANGE RESOURCES CORPORATION is an independent oil and gas company operating in the Southwestern and Appalachian regions of the United States.