CHENANGO COUNTY – Move over Marcellus, Herkimer is here.

A natural gas company operating at two well sites in northern Chenango County said the subsurface rock formation has been yielding about one million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Norse Energy Corporation of Norway, the parent company of Nornew, Inc., announced the significant discovery in a press release on Sept. 18, stating that the find was restrained by the capacity of the production equipment and represented only “the tip of the iceberg.”

“We now have on order larger capacity production equipment so that the encouraging geology of the area is allowed to demonstrate its full potential,” said Chief Executive Officer Øivind Risberg.

Norse conservatively estimates average reserves of 1.2 billion cubic feet (214,000 BOE) per well. With 250 identified well locations, the company’s projected reserve potential is in excess of three hundred billion cubic feet (53 MMBOE) in the Herkimer Formation alone.

“The potential of the Herkimer formation should also be coupled with the potential in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations underlying much of our land position of more than 130,000 acres in central New York,” Risberg said.