A PowerPoint presentation title “North American Natural Gas Supply Assessment” gives the most detailed information that we have seen on the production history and projected future of the natural gas plays that are currently taking off in the United States. It was prepared for the American Clean Skies Foundation by Navigant Consulting.
United States natural gas production is on a new rise after many years of steady decline. The newly tapped plays such as the Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus have the promise of replacing a lot of oil that otherwise would have been imported.
The United States is ramping up its natural gas production thanks to newly developed gas in formations such as the Marcellus Shale, Barnett Shale and Haynesville Shale. These organic shale deposits are not unique to the United States and this article explores the gas shale situation in Europe which is just starting to take off.
Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, says that drilling in the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania is a potential Gold Rush and that environmental issues associated with the Marcellus Shale are among his top concerns.
Lots of people are being asked to sell the minerals beneath their property or sign a contract that gives a drilling company the right to explore their property for oil and natural gas. This article explores many aspects of mineral rights, and attempts to inform the potential seller/lessor that the transactions and agreements can be very complex and that advice from an expert is a good idea.
A lot of attention is going to the millions of gallons of water that will be needed for the estimated 1500 Marcellus Shale gas wells that will be drilled each year. An article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells what is done with water from the Barnett Shale wells in Texas.
One of the main environmental concerns related to development of the Marcellus Shale gas resource is “Where is the frack water coming from and how will it be disposed of? New York officials estimate that about 1500 gas wells will be drilled per year in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania / Southern Tier of New York. With each well needing hundreds of thousands of gallons a reasonable question is” “Where is all of that water coming from?”
Range Resources has drilled 100 wells in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virgina, which gives them some insight into the potential of this newly realized resource. They currently have three rigs drilling and plan to increase that to eight for 2009. Their last ten horizontal wells have an average peak initial rate of 4.1 Mmcf per day.
This is a situation of conflicting land use in Pennsylvania. The Marcellus Shale is a viable gas reservoir and the depleted Oriskany Sandstone - only 110 vertical feet away - is the proposed location of a natural gas storage facility. Probably not a good idea to develop both of them simultaneously, and hydrofracing the Marcellus might not be healthy for the integrity of the Oriskany. Which should be developed?
China National Petroleum Corporation is considering to take minority ownership stakes in some of the Marcellus Shale and Fayetteville Shale properties that will be offered by Chesapeake Energy.
This Associated Press video gives a nice summary of developments in Pennsylvania related to the Marcellus Shale. For a more detailed story with reference links see the article: “Marcellus Shale - Appalachian Basin Natural Gas Play“.
The reporter says that no Marcellus has been produced yet. First production using new technologies from the play in northeastern Pennsylvania was made by Cabot Oil and Gas after this video was shot on July 24th. In southwestern Pennsylvania, Range Resources was producing from the Marcellus with new technologies in 2005.
New York Governor David Patterson signed legislation today to allow horizontal drilling in New York. These wells will target the Marcellus Shale and also the Utica Shale. A horizontal well begins at the surface as a standard vertical well but then is deviated to drill horizontally through a gas-rich rock unit. This strategy provides a greater distance of well bore within the pay zone and often leads to larger production rates and more efficient natural gas yields.
Lots of people have leased their acreage for potential gas drilling and are curious about how much their royalties might amount to. We now have a tool to estimate gas royalty income based upon a few assumptions. You just type in your royalty rate, an assumed natural gas wellhead price, an assumed well production rate, the number of acres in the production unit and the number of production unit acres that belong to you - then push a button.
About 74,000 acres of state forest land in northcentral Pennsylvania will be opened for natural gas lease bidding on September 2. This land is above the Marcellus Shale, a rock unit that has attracted enormous attention in the past months with recent lease prices of over $2000 per acre plus royalty rights being common in the northern part of the state.
Most of the leasing and drilling in the United States gas shale plays have been done by smaller independent companies, but now some of the international oil companies are starting to buy in. BP just purchased $1.75 billion of unconventional shale assets from Chesapeake Energy.
John Pinkerton, CEO of Range Resources, says that the company now has over 100 drilled wells in the Marcellus Shale and 20 of them are horizontal completions. He says that the Company understands the play and its technical requirements and that allows them to move from the testing to the development stage of the project.
Here is an article that contains a few stories about the people who live above the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and some of their experiences with landmen and leasing. Some leased for a couple hundred dollars per acre and a few weeks later saw their neighbors receive a couple thousand.
T. Boone Pickens has a plan to help America replace the use of foreign oil with domestic energy sources. His plan calls for a greater utilization of wind power and the use of domestic natural gas to replace gasoline as a motor vehicle fuel. With the many new natural gas discoveries made in the past few years the United States is in a better position to support natural gas vehicles.
An article on the Penn State Live website explores the potential impact of the Marcellus Shale gas drilling on the Pennsylvania economy. The authors project about 8000 new jobs per year and about $1 billion per year in disposable personal income. Much of that money will come from landowner royalties.
Lots of people are looking for maps of the Marcellus Shale. Our article on the Marcellus Shale includes a thickness map by USGS, a depth map that we have prepared using USGS and DOE information and a map showing net feet of organic-rich shale in the Marcellus by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey.
The Marcellus Shale is named after a town in Onondaga County, New York. The recent natural gas leasing and drilling activity in the Marcellus began and is most intense in Pennsylvania, however, areas of New York just north of the Pennsylvania border are starting to see more activity.
New gas wells are coming online above the Marcellus Shale and new pipelines will be needed to get the gas to market. Range Resources (a gas producer) has entered an agreement with MarkWest Energy Partners (a pipeline company) who will make a $175 million pipeline investment.
An article in the Ithaca Journal explores the large number of wells that might be drilled to produce the Marcellus Shale and the large amount of water and waste water processing that might be a part of those efforts.
This is an article about how some people are immediately signing gas leases without seeking the advice of their attorney or asking their neighbors what they have been offered. If you want to get some anonymous data about what other folks in your county have been paid you can check an online gas lease database.
There is a tremendous interest in the Devonian black shale known as the Marcellus Formation. Landmen are offering landowners signing bonuses of over $2000 per acre for desirable properties in northern Pennsylvania and western New York along with up to 18% royalty rates. Here is a growing list of videos, news links and lease information.
Early this year researchers surprised everyone with a resource estimate for the Marcellus Shale beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and surrounding states. They estimated that the Marcellus might contain more than 50 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. That volume of natural gas would be enough to supply the entire United States for about two years and have a wellhead value of about one trillion dollars!
The Devonian shales of the Appalachian Basin have long been known to be a source of difficult-to-recover natural gas. A Fredonia State College professor has calculated that Marcellus Shale might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Keep your field notes safe by writing them in a waterproof fieldbook with a waterproof pen that writes at all temperatures and at all angles - even upside down. Protective covers have pockets for three pencils, an acid bottle and a 6" ruler/ scale (items not included). A plastic clip keeps the cover closed and book firmly secured. Has 2" belt loops for easy carrying, or stash the case in your field pack.
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