Oil and gas companies refer to areas where they own a significant number of acres as fields.  Stone Energy has one called the Mary field here in West Virginia.  It’s up in Tyler and Wetzel counties, for the most part.  It produces about 100 MMCF of gas per day.  Stone Energy has decided to shut the entire field in.

The reason is that the amount of money that Stone can get for gas produced from the Mary field is so small that it isn’t worth their time; they’re practically giving the gas away.  For more details, and a lot of interesting facts about oil and gas pricing and production, take a look at this article by Marcellus Drilling News.