A small, family-owned oil and gas well drilling company is under investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh for cutting trees and drilling a new well in the Allegheny National Forest without the required approvals.

Ironically, it might be that the approval documents weren't issued when the company expected them to be because oil and gas development in the 513,000-acre national forest is outstripping the U.S. Forest Service's ability to process the paperwork.

The federal investigation is focused on the Minard Run Oil Co., whose president and chief executive officer, Fred Fesenmyer, is also chairman of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association.

The oil company was clearing trees last month and drilling the first of 19 wells off state Route 59, also known as the Longhouse National Scenic Byway, east of the Allegheny Reservoir in McKean County, when the operation was shut down by the Forest Service.

Minard Oil didn't have a timber contract allowing it to cut the trees or a "notice to proceed," both issued by the Forest Service and both required before any tree-cutting, road-building or well-drilling can take place in the state's only national forest.

The Forest Service has refused to comment on what it termed "an ongoing criminal investigation," and the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh would only say that it is "looking into the situation."

Mr. Fesenmyer admitted that Minard Oil didn't have the required documents to begin clearing trees or drilling a well, but said the 60-day review period had run its course when he decided to proceed. He also said the Forest Service hadn't responded to phone calls and letters requesting the documents.

"We were left hanging and at the end of 75 days I said we'd done what we could except for getting the two documents," Mr. Fesenmyer said. "So we weren't doing anything illegal except that we did not have documentation."

Mr. Fesenmyer said Minard Oil has paid fees for the timber contract and received the notice to proceed a week or so after starting to drill.

"In my opinion, if the Forest Service issued the notice [to proceed] and accepted the money for the trees, that issue is moot," he said. "Maybe we'll get a fine as a result of the investigation. Our hands might get slapped."

But the bigger issue, Mr. Fesenmyer said, is what requirements the Forest Service has to approve a drilling application in a timely manner.

"We sat and waited for 15 extra days and we have schedules that we like to stay with. Every delay is time consuming and costs us money, too."

The Forest Service is stretched thin by booming oil and gas development in the Allegheny National Forest where 93 percent of the mineral rights underlying the public land in Warren, Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties is privately owned, much of it by oil and gas firms. More than 9,000 wells are already pumping and another 2,000 could be approved this year.

"There's been a three-fold increase in the amount of oil and gas well development in the Allegheny, so the delay probably is the result of an underfunded and understaffed operation," Mr. Fesenmyer said. "However, the industry is operating under these conditions and suffering the consequences, yet for the Forest Service there are none."

But Ryan Talbot, forest watch coordinator for the Allegheny Defense Project, a forest focused environmental group, said the Forest Service should put tighter controls on oil and gas well drilling in the forest.

"The Forest Service is moving in the right direction by stopping that drilling until the proper documents were issued," Mr. Talbot said. "It has the authority to exert more control on oil and gas development, and it seems they finally realized that by taking this action."

The Bradford, McKean County-based company began operations in 1875 and is the oldest family owned and operated oil and gas drilling company in the world. It has 61 full-time employees and produces oil and gas from approximately 10,000 acres in the northwestern part of the state.