By Christine Buurma - Jan 23, 2012
The U.S. Energy Department cut its estimate for natural gas reserves in the Marcellus shale formation by 66 percent, citing improved data on drilling and production.
About 141 trillion cubic feet of gas can be recovered from the Marcellus shale using current technology, down from the previous estimate of 410 trillion, the department said today in its Annual Energy Outlook. About 482 trillion cubic feet can be produced from shale basins across the U.S., down 42 percent from 827 trillion in last year’s outlook.
“Drilling in the Marcellus accelerated rapidly in 2010 and 2011, so that there is far more information available today than a year ago,” the department said. The estimates represent unproved technically recoverable gas. The daily rate of Marcellus production doubled during 2011.
The estimated Marcellus reserves would meet U.S. gas demand for about six years, using 2010 consumption data, according to the Energy Department, down from 17 years in the previous outlook.
The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation stretching across the U.S. Northeast, including Pennsylvania and New York. Shale producers use a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to extract gas embedded in the rock.
Geological Data
The U.S. Geological Survey said in August that it would reduce its estimate of undiscovered Marcellus Shale natural gas by as much as 80 percent after an updated assessment by government geologists.
Shale gas will probably account for 49 percent of total U.S. dry gas production in 2035, up from 23 percent in 2010, the Energy Department said today.
Gas’s share of electric power generation will increase to 27 percent in 2035 from 24 percent in 2010, the report showed.
The department also said the U.S. may become a net exporter of liquefied natural gas in 2016 and a net exporter of natural gas in 2021. U.S. LNG exports may start with a capacity of 1.1 billion cubic feet a day in 2016 and increase by an additional 1.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2019, the department said.
LINK to article.
So the Marcellus Shale gas will provide about six years of energy? And we are destroying huge areas of the country for this? Six years? Is that a worthwhile plan?
2 comments:
SIX FREAKIN' YEARS? Well, somebody hold me up because I'm falling over due to the senselessness of this whole fiasco!The thing that bugs me the most, of course, is sick or dead children. But after that, it has to be the fact that these gas moguls could JUST AS EASILY make money in RENEWABLE RESOURCES, but they are simply too LAZY to CHANGE, so people have to just roll over and play dead or actually BE dead when fracking comes to their locale. It makes me want those CEOs to be required to live NEXT TO their own messes. Would they still be so callous when it was their OWN families getting sick and their OWN homes without potable water?
To find it acceptable to destroy FOREVER half the planet just to get a few years of dirty nat gas is just impossible to understand- oh, except that a few people are getting filthy rich. I would not want to be them in the long run, especially if you believe in karma.
Post a Comment