• Current News
• Africa
• Alabama
• Alaska
• Antarctic
• Archaeology
• Arctic
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Asia
• Astronomy
• Atlantic
• Australia
• Bakken Shale
• Barnett Shale
• California
• Canada
• Caribbean Sea
• Caves and Karst
• Central America
• China
• Coal
• Coastal Geology
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Contamination
• Copper
• Delaware
• Diamonds
• Dimension Stone
• Dinosaurs
• Dust Storm
• Earthquakes
• Energy
• Engineering Geology
• Environment
• Europe
• Fayetteville Shale
• Floods
• Florida
• Fossils
• Gemstones
• Geography
• Geologist Career
• Geology for Kids
• Geology.com
• Georgia
• Geothermal
• Glaciers
• Global Warming
• Gold
• Google
• GPS and GIS
• Great Websites
• Ground Water
• Gulf of Mexico
• Hawaii
• Haynesville Shale
• Historical Geology
• Hurricanes and Cyclones
• Idaho
• Illinois
• India
• Indiana
• Indonesia
• Interesting
• Iowa
• Japan
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Lakes
• Landslides
• LNG
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maps
• Marcellus Shale
• Mars
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Metals
• Meteorology
• Meteors and Meteorites
• Mexico
• Michigan
• Minerals
• Mining
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Natural Gas
• Natural Hazards
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oceanography
• Ohio
• Oil and Gas
• Oklahoma
• OPEC
• Oregon
• Pacific
• Pennsylvania
• Plants
• Plate Tectonics
• Politics and Geology
• Redoubt Volcano
• Rhode Island
• Rivers
• Russia
• Satellite Images
• Soil
• Solar Power
• South America
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Space
• Subsidence
• Teaching Science
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Tornadoes
• Tsunami
• United States
• Uranium
• USGS
• Utah
• Utica Shale
• Vehicles
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Volcanoes
• Washington
• Water
• West Virginia
• Wildfire
• Wildlife
• Wind Energy
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Geology News
Marcellus Shale Current Events

The American Petroleum Institute has a video that explains the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes. It explains the drilling, fracturing, equipment, materials and environmental concerns.

This is an excellent video from an authoritative source.

A few years ago a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals were being planned to bring foreign natural gas into US markets. Then natural gas drillers began tapping shale reservoirs such as the Haynesville of Louisiana, the Barnett of Texas and the Marcellus of the Appalachian basin. The US natural gas and energy situations have been changed.

An article in the New York Times reports that Chesapeake Energy’s CEO said that they will not be drilling wells in watersheds that supply water to New York City. There are plenty of opportunities elsewhere.

In 2008 New York state government stopped issuing drilling permits to companies developing the Marcellus Shale. Now, one year later, new regulations are available for review. Many companies spent millions for short term drilling rights to see valuable time on their leases expire. The permitting break was to give the state time to revamp the regulations in response to new methods of drilling which had taken them by surprise.

An article on the PennLive.com website reports that a landowners group negotiated a deal with Chesapeake Energy that will pay them $5750 per acre plus royalties for a 37,000 acre package. This is the highest per acre Marcellus Shale payment that we have seen.

An article on the Pittsburgh Live website reports that 1067 Marcellus Shale drilling permits were issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection between January 1 and August 21 of this year compared to 476 permits for all of 2008. Low gas prices have not slowed permitting activity.

“Colorado School of Mines has announced the establishment of the Unconventional Natural Gas Institute (UNGI) for the upstream research and development of natural gas, which is clean-burning, helps minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and is in great supply in the United States.” Quoted from the Colorado School of Mines announcement.

An interesting article at the Financial Times website explores the topic of foreign companies investing in United States natural gas. Billion dollar investments have occurred in which foreign companies have bought major interests in the emerging shale gas plays.

The United States Department of Energy funded nine natural gas from shale projects. Most of them are intended to improve the management of hydraulic fracturing water at shale drilling sites or waste water treatment sites.

The amount of natural gas in storage has skyrocketed above the historic five year range. There is a lot of new gas entering the market and stocks are 517 billion cubic feet above the 5-year range.

The Energy Information Administration’s estimated average wellhead price for natural gas per Mcf for the past several months….

$4.16 February
$3.72 March
$3.43 April
$3.45 May
$3.45 June
$3.43 July

Natural gas producers have developed such a large production capacity and a deep resource base that the market now has an enormous overhang of natural gas that could take years to work off.

In a recent news release from Chesapeake Energy, data was provided on their expected yield for wells in the various shale plays. They expect the total yield from their Haynesville wells to be 6.5 bcfe, Fayetteville 2.4 bcfe, and Marcellus wells to yield 4.2 bcfe. These numbers might increase as technology improves.

The natural gas supply situation of the United States has improved with a rise in reserves of about 35% between 2006 and 2008. Unconventional gas from shale accounts for most of the increase.

A blog post on the Wall Street Journal website speculates on why the number of active rigs is up for the third week in a row.

Natural gas is under $4 per million BTU, down from a high of $13 one year ago. The Houston Chronicle has an article that reports on natural gas producers cutting their output in an effort to cut the supply of natural gas and thus increase prices.

Two members of Congress are working on a bill that would give the federal government regulatory authority over hydraulic fracturing. They are motivated by a concern for ground water protection. Drillers are concerned that new federal regulations will cause permitting delays and increased costs.

National Fuel Gas has been drilling wells into the Marcellus Shale and the yields from those wells seem to be increasing as their methods improve. They speculate about Marcellus Shale wells that yield 40 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Although North Carolina has no current oil or natural gas production, drilling methods developed in other states might be used to tap natural gas reservoirs beneath several North Carolina counties. The Cumnock Formation of the Deep River Basin and the Cow Branch Formation of the Dan River Basin both contain organic-rich shales that might yield commercial quantities of natural gas.

The United States Geological Survey has a new fact sheet titled: “Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale”. It addresses what many consider to be the number one environmental challenge facing the development of the Marcellus Shale – water supply protection.

Mineralweb.com has a lot of short articles and links to resources related to mineral rights, oil and gas leasing, royalties, taxes and more.

Local governments in areas above the country’s many natural gas plays can produce their own gas. The President of the Allegheny County Council (Pennsylvania) says that they should drill wells to heat county buildings, generate their own electricity and sell the rest on the open market.

A county official in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania wants to see his county government getting into the natural gas business. He envisions how gas could be drilled on county properties to heat buildings, fuel vehicles, produce electricity and more.

“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the release of Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. The Primer provides regulators, policy makers, and the public with an objective source of information on the technology advances and challenges that accompany deep shale gas development.” Quoted from fossil.energy.gov.

Protect your important field notes by writing them in a waterproof notebook with waterproof ink. You work hard to collect important field data, don’t take chances with it. Available in spiral and cloth-bound formats.

Range Resources entered the Marcellus Shale natural gas play in 2004, ahead of other companies. Now, John Pinkerton, CEO, reports that their early investment in about 1.4 million net acres is going to pay back nicely.

This .pdf document contains one of the most detailed presentations of hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale that you will find. It was written by staff members of ALL Consulting.

A news release by the Ziff Energy Group says that the unconventional gas plays now active across North America will account for 53% of the continent’s gas production by 2020.

The New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2009 is a bill introduced on April 1st to promote the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel. It has provisions for natural gas vehicle production and installation of refueling equipment. This is great news for many parts of the country where new shale gas plays are developing, it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, keep fuel dollars in the United States and result in fewer vehicle emissions. (Text of the Bill.)

Pennsylvania State University’s Cooperative Extension has published a .pdf document titled: Marcellus Shale: What Local Government Officials Need to Know.

Geology.com article on the Marcellus Shale.