U.S. Cuts Estimate for Marcellus Shale Gas Reserves By 66%

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?

The Questionable Economics of Shale Gas

Photo: “American Gasland,” artwork by River Side (marcellusprotest/Flickr)

So is unconventional tight gas going to generate enormous profits?  Isn't that the message that we hear frequently?  This article by Chris Nelder (smartplanet.com/blog) casts serious doubt about the economic benefits of natural gas drilling. Nelder claims that, our shale gas resources, "while much ballyhooed in the press, are far from certain."  We have only an 11-year supply of gas on the books, but beyond that, the future of natural gas is only "probable, possible, and speculative."  The US, he writes, could become a net gas importer by 2035.  Admittedly, he says, we are producing a lot of gas for the moment, but it may come at the cost of profitability.

The article asserts that on an averaged annual basis, shale has been unprofitable since 2008.  As to why there is so much drilling activity, read the entire article.

The uncomfortable truth is that, at this point, we simply don't know how big our shale gas resources are, how much of the gas can be technically or economically produced, or how profitable producing the gas actually is.  And that should give us pause.

I'll say!   Don't believe everything you hear! 

LINK

Gas Well Pads Are Extremely Dangerous Places

A well explodes in Forth Worth, Texas

Beware!  Do not go near gas drilling well pads. 


To: Advis...@PaForestCoalition.org

Subject: Details of the Carmichaels Gas Site Accident: Greene County (PA) Incident

On August 20, we received a report of an accident at an East Resources site on South Muddy Creek Road, Carmichaels (Greene County) .  The report claimed that a worker's flashlight set off a methane explosion from a "brine tank" (industry buzzword for flowback water?)  It was very strange that there was no word of this from DEP or the media. Finally, on August 26, we received this confirmation from DEP via Kathy Davis:

“There was an incident where a water hauler was on the top of a tank and he said when he checked the tank with a flashlight, it flashed on him. Burning him on the hands and face. He went to the hospital and was treated and released. The company contacted our Greene county oil and gas inspector and we were notified of the incident.  The cause of the ignition was never proven and new protocols have been initiated by the company including no water transfers after hours, no flashlights, lighters or anything that is not intrinsically safe.  The department is supplying our inspectors with intrinsically safe flashlights and related equipment as needed.  Ignoring the fact that no unauthorized people should ever be on a well location, tank or anywhere near the wellhead themselves. Gas wells, locations and the equipment used on the locations by their very nature must be assumed to be flammable atmospheres. One should never be discharging a firearm, smoking, burning, taking pictures, using a cell phone, running gasoline or diesel engines anywhere on or near the location without the proper protocols being put in place.  And just to be clear, no one should ever be hunting from the top of any brine, oil or fluids tanks associated with any oil or gas wells in the commonwealth or anywhere in the country for that matter. . . “

Michael H. Arch, PG
Oil and Gas Inspector Supervisor
412-442-4010

Dick Martin, Coordinator

The Pennsylvania Forest Coalition is a unique alliance of hunters, hikers, anglers, landowners, wildlife-watchers, paddlers, bikers, churches and conservation groups who are united in our concern for the good stewardship of our public lands.

Caring for what God has created http://www.paforestcoalition.org/.  You can give up eating Gulf Coast shrimp, but you can't give up drinking Pennsylvania water.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In Memory of Karen Korrell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010

Energy Independence? American LNG Headed For Overseas

The US has too much natural gas.  Liquified natural gas will be sold overseas to the highest bidder.  Wasn't all this shale gas extraction supposed to produce energy for us?  Now we have so much, we have to sell it abroad?  Here is an article from The Wall Street Journal:

Cheniere Wins Approval to Export U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575482290198119482.html

* SEPTEMBER 9, 2010, 7:59 P.M. ET

By ISABEL ORDONEZ

HOUSTON—The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it has granted approval to Cheniere Energy Partners LP's bid to export liquefied natural gas produced in North America from a terminal in Louisiana.
The approval, granted Sept. 7, puts the terminal in Cameron Parish one step closer to becoming the first facility to export natural gas produced in the Lower 48 states, drawing supply from the burgeoning
unconventional gas fields in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The proposal underscores how the natural-gas supply picture in the U.S. has turned from scarcity to overabundance, thanks to the exploitation of rock formations called shales. It also marks a radical shift in the plans of companies such as Cheniere, which once planned to profit from building multibillion-dollar liquefaction terminals in different U.S. coastal locations. But the natural-gas shale boom brought those plans to a halt. North America's new gas wealth has prompted other export projects, such as Apache Corp.'s proposed facility in British Columbia, which aims to supply Asia with large quantities of Canadian natural gas. Natural gas, usually shipped through pipelines, has traditionally been a regional market, but when it is converted into liquid, it can be shipped overseas. Through its Sabine Pass Liquefaction subsidiary, Cheniere asked the Department of Energy in early August for permission to export up to 16 million metric tons annually for 30 years. It also filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build, in
phases, a liquefaction facility that would eventually handle an average of 2.6 billion cubic feet a day from four liquefied natural gas, or LNG, trains.

The Department of Energy's approval allows Cheniere's unit to export LNG to any nation that has the capacity to import the fuel and with which the U.S. has entered, or may in the future enter, into a Free
Trade Agreement, including Canada, Mexico, Chile and Singapore,
according to the order from the Department of Energy.

Gas-bearing rock formations known as shales have changed the view that domestic U.S. natural-gas output would decline and that new supplies would have to come into the U.S. from other countries. In fact, these
new supplies have depressed gas prices, discouraging gas imports that were once thought critical to feed growing demand for the fuel. Prolific onshore gas fields in Texas and Oklahoma, and the well-
documented unconventional gas fields in the Barnett, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Fayetteville, Woodford and Bossier basins in Texas and Louisiana, would represent the most likely sources of physical supply for the Sabine Pass, Cheniere's unit said in its application.

The Sabine Pass LNG terminal is already an import facility. With a total send-out capacity of four billion cubic feet a day and 16.8 billion cubic feet of storage capacity, it is the largest receiving terminal, by regasification capacity, in the world, according to Cheniere's website. The FERC recently allowed Sabine Pass to use the terminal for the additional purpose of exporting foreign-sourced LNG. Cheniere will soon file a separate application for authorization to export LNG to countries with which a Free Trade Agreement applicable to natural gas and LNG isn't in effect, according to the application it filed in August. The second application will be subject to more rigorous public-interest review and analysis by the Department of
Energy, the company has said in the application.
—Jason Womack contributed to this article.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In Memory of Karen Korell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010