Natural Gas and Capitalism to the Rescue

The Marcellus Shale formation reaching from the Appalachians to central New York State illustrates why natural gas is enjoying a new popularity in the energy limelight. Just seven years ago, the US Geologic Service estimated recoverable reserves in the Marcellus to be 1.9 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Then in 2008 a pair of geologists — Englander and Lash — recognizing how successfully the hydrofracing technique was applied to the Barnett Shale formation in north Texas, upped the ante considerably. They estimated that the Marcellus formation might contain upwards of 500 tcf.

Factors of 250 don’t come easily in oil and gas exploration. Besides heaping ridicule on the commonly repeated theory that we are living in the era of peak oil, these numbers suddenly brought great attention to non-traditional geological storehouses of natural gas. This is especially true since gas shales are distributed much more democratically than other hydrocarbons.

In addition to the East Coast, Marcellus, and north Texas Barnett shales, deposits in Haynesville (250 tcf) in Louisiana hold enormous potential as well. The Bakken formation in the upper Midwest and extending into Canada is also hydrocarbon-rich. To put these numbers in perspective, if 30% of the upper combined reserve estimates of Marcellus and Haynesville could eventually be recovered, then a full ten years of the country’s total current natural gas usage could be satisfied. And at $4 per 1,000 cubic foot at the wellhead, these two deposits have an economic value of 2 trillion dollars. Even in today’s insane spending environment that’s real money, real taxes and real jobs.

While we look forward to the time when western Pennsylvanians will wear 10-gallon hats and speak with a drawl, don’t count out the ability of our current government to rain ruin on the nation’s private energy developers’ plans to reinvigorate natural gas production. After all we live in a time when our EPA has labeled CO2 as a pollutant, and our Energy Secretary is non-stop booster of wasteful research on biofuels and carbon sequestration.

American Thinker