DRILL RIG bores a hole down to the Marcellus shale under Dimock, Pa. Drilling fluid and cuttings are sprayed into a retention pond.
Image: Photograph by © 2010 J. Henry Fair; Special thanks to LightHawk
In Brief
- The Marcellus shale could potentially supply the country’s natural gas needs for 40 years.
- Critics claim the hydraulic fracturing process that taps the gas can contaminate drinking water supplies, prompting regulators to propose tough controls.
- Full disclosure of chemicals injected into the earth during the fracking process could ease tensions.
A single, vast shale deposit— the Marcellus formation, stretching from Tennessee to New York—might contain enough natural gas to supply the U.S. for more than 40 years at today’s consumption rates, according to recent estimates. Thousands of vertical wells have exploited the shale’s easy-to-reach deposits. But newer technology and improved procedures are making horizontal drilling cost-effective, greatly expanding the amount of gas that can be extracted economically.
Political pressure is increasing to achieve energy independence from overseas suppliers and to use cleaner sources such as natural gas to create electricity, which emits 40 percent less carbon dioxide than burning coal. In response, the rush is on to capture as much Marcellus gas as possible. Drilling is expanding fastest in Pennsylvania’s extensive reserve. Only two Marcellus wells were drilled in that state in 2005, but 210 were drilled in 2008, and 768 were drilled in 2009, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). And every year the portion of drilling permits for horizontal wells has increased significantly, accounting for 75 percent in 2009 and 87 percent so far in 2010. Fewer than 3,000 Marcellus drilling permits were approved from 2005 through 2009, yet “we expect about 5,000 applications in 2010,” says John Hanger, secretary of the DEP. Horizontal drilling is spreading rapidly across Europe as well.
This article was originally published with the title The Drillers Are Coming.
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10 Comments
Add CommentIn the Netherlands we've been extracting gas, oil, and salt from subterranean layers for over 40 years. In the area, small earthquakes have become common while ground levels are sinking. It is a folly to think we can extract anything from deeper levels without the upper levels - eventually - caving in. Even if those levels are deemed impermeable, they'll fracture as they come down. The logical consequence is that mainly lighter constituents (water, gas, oil) will rise through those cracks. Go dig - the bill is due only in another 50-100 years. Who cares?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAbe Kornelis
Ruurlo, the Netherlands
Actually, if all the gas and oil is extracted from a formation (the pessimistic scenario which would be repeated many fold in the Peak Oil hypothesis) it doesn't matter much if the cavity caves in. Only residual water will escape.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut what seems to be the case in the Gulf of Mexico is that the gas and oil keeps coming up from far below and refills the cavity, which will either allow seepage or renewed pumping of the "depleted" formation.
The reason this seems to happen is that the entire Gulf of Mexico was deeply and thoroughly fractured when the Chixulub asteroid slammed into Yucatan. All of man's bad works in fracturing deep rock are really as nothing compared to this event, which is thought to allow really deep oil and other volatiles to find their way upwards.
All of which explains why Macondo 252 is such a really good well. Any well that produces 50,000 barrels a day is world class, matched by few others in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. If the USA abandons this fantastically rich oil formation it will be to our own sorrow, as China will soon be on the scene with drilling platforms supported out of Cuba which will be able to anchor outside of US protected waters and drill horizontally into this rich formation. The US might fuss about it, but it is very hard to prove legally what will be done.
We face the same situation off ANWAR. The Russians will develop oil drilling platforms that will anchor in the actually quite shallow Arctic Ocean. If there is less ice there in the future, so much better for the Russians. They will drill horizontally into the ANWAR reservoir.
Use it or lose it, it seems to me.
Mike...as an oil and gas explorationist in the Gulf of Mexico, I would like to inform you that the vast majority of production comes from reservoirs much younger than the Chixulub asteroid event. The Macondo produces out of Middle Miocene age (Cristellari I biostratigraphic marker) formation, that is less than 15 million years old. So you might want to do a little research in the future before you post.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey use a severely toxic soup of 500 chemicals in the US for fracking to maximize profits. Our national aquafers are already slightly contaminated nationally, some areas are severely contaminated with water coming from wells that would kill everything that drinks it. It's so toxic, microbes can't even survive. Go nuclear, it's far better, pollutes less, and the waste is 100% controllable. Waste from Coal goes straight into the air, some ash is burried. Waste from natural gas goes straight into the air, and the toxic soup of chemicals is left in the ground to seap into the water table. Nuclear waste is just stored, and there is no chance of leaking into the water column, depleated uranium is a solid.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn 40 years, when we run out of natural gas, everything is going to be depleted...including our radioactive drinking water and our air is going to be 400 times to 4,000 times more polluted than it is now and...what are you going to do then fossil fuel lovers? What are you going to tell your children about how we were too greedy and not smart enough to build a clean source of energy or gave a damn about our environment enough to care if the children could breath the air, drink the water, or grow a vegetable or medical plant in the soil? What are you going to tell the children about why the tap water they are getting a drink from catches on fire or the radiation emitting from it peels the skin off their faces?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRadiation is not a good source of energy and it does leak into the water tables. Geothermal is the only source of energy we have that is clean, safe, and never ending that actually can provide for all our energy needs...safely.
Lesson learned from these comments: start stockpiling because the ignorant asses who influence policy are going to drive us back to the stone age.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMike, They can't drill near US waters off of Cuba because the gulf stream currents keep that from happening if there was actually gas or oil there which is unlikely as off the middle, south Fla coat either.
NG is only good if they can drill safely, cleanly. People turning on their water faucets and blowing up their homes is not good. This happens both in the east and Colorado.
While they say we have 100 yrs of NG, if we use it faster like we will, that drops to 30-40 yrs worth.
I drive my EV's that get 600 and 250 mpg cost equivalent for fuel, about the same for batteries and they cost about 25% to run compared to similar ICE's.
Hey, natural gas is a "fossil fuel" and its burning produces carbon dioxide. Yes, somewhat less than coal for the same energy yield. But let's face it, this is only a temporary solution to a problem that needs a solution sooner, rather than later. Let's put our development dollars elsewhere. Cliff LaMotte
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHydraulic fracturing to obtain natural gas is a much bigger problem than the article below indicates. Hydraulic fracturing causes natural gas and other pollutants to contaminate the ground water. This problem was first discovered in Western states after gas wells were drilled causing springs and small streams to became contaminated. Deer and other wild animals drinking that water became sick and died.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are now a few areas where it is dangerous to hold a match next to running water because a large plume of fire erupts.
Thirty four states are now being hydraulic fractured. In some areas the ground water will stay contaminated for more than 10,000 years.
Watch "Gasland" from NOW on PBS at http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html
Theron Randolph, MD, the father of the modern understanding of food and chemical allergies, warmed about this type of immune system damaging contamination more than 40 years ago!
There are better ways to hold down atmospheric CO2 levels than burning natural gas.
Mark
The main question is still : What are Americans going to do when the shale-gas is fully depleted? One day or another, people are going to have to face the facts : Current consumption levels are condemning our grandchildren to dire poverty unless urgent economies are implemented. The great american dream will have only existed for one or two generations, compared to the millions of years we managed well on renewables!
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