The marcellus shale coalition msc works with exploration and production, midstream, and supply chain partners in the appalachian basin and across the country to address issues regarding the production of clean, jobcreating, american natural gas from the marcellus and utica shale plays. The marcellus or its partial equivalent the millboro shale, is present in the subsurface in ny, pa, oh, western md, va, wv, and northeastern tn. The pennsylvania marcellus shale is part of the large marcellus formation, which extends from ohio through virginia, west virginia, pennsylvania, and new york. Please enter the current gas pricing from your most recent royalty statement. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading under the surface. Aug 04, 2019 new webpage by propublica and gazettemail showing well pads and other information. The 5 companies dominating the marcellus shale play the. Library fact sheets, studies, reports, white papers.
This book examines the production technology, history, and potential environmental impacts of shale gas development. Gas pricing at the wellhead crowd sourced pricing values. The term marcellus shale is the preferred name throughout most of the appalachian region, although the term marcellus formation is also acceptable within the state of pennsylvania. The marcellus shale, also referred to as the marcellus formation, is a middle devonianage, black, lowdensity, carbonaceous organicrich shale that occurs in the subsurface beneath much of ohio, west virginia, pennsylvania and new york. This volume explores the geology, history, technology, and potential environmental impacts of marcellus shale gas resources. One shale unit in particular, the middle devonian marcellus formation see front cover, has recently become a hot item with the nations oil and gas industry, as well as with the news media. Natural fractures joints in devonianage shale, typical of fractures in marcellus shale. Pdf the devonian marcellus shale and millboro shale. By geological timescale estimates, the marcellus shale aka the marcellus formation was formed roughly 390 million years ago in the middle devonian epoch in the paleozoic era. Control over drilling rights is at stake in the heart of marcellus countrynortheast pennsylvania and central new york. This is a faultlessly edited book, scholarly in its attention to detail.
The barnett shale formation is the more familiar of shale gas resources and grandfather of shale gas plays. Geology of the marcellus shale west virginia network. Outcrops of marcellus the marcellus is exposed at the surface in eastern wv as shown by the outcrop map. The marcellus formation was deposited during the middle devonian period about 390 million years ago in the appalachian basin of eastern north america. Learn the basics of whats behind the marcellus shale boom in this educational video, created by the pittsburgh postgazette for. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of marcellus, new york, in the united states, it extends throughout much of the appalachian. New webpage by propublica and gazettemail showing well pads and other information. The appalachian basin was formed as the result of the collision of avalonia with laurentia prehistoric north america. One would think, from all the fuss about the marcellus, that it was a newly discovered gas reservoir contain. For decades, the marcellus was known to geology buffs as a 389millionyearold soft rock formation, a mile or more under the appalachian mountains, encompassing 95,000 square miles 246,000. Shale is extremely fine grained with many very small pore spaces. Marcellus formation wikimili, the best wikipedia reader.
Feb 25, 2011 learn the basics of whats behind the marcellus shale boom in this educational video, created by the pittsburgh postgazette for. The marcellus shale formation stretches from virginia through new york. A valuable work for anyone who has heard of fracking or of shale gas and wants to learn more. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of marcellus, new york, in the united states, it extends throughout much of the appalachian basin the unit name usage by the u. Information on the marcellus shale wv surface owners. Founded in 2008, a group of natural gas producers committed to the responsible development of natural gas from the marcellus shale geological formation and the enhancement of the regions economy that can be realized by this cleanburning energy source. Energy information administration, based on drillinginfo inc. I find wilber and his book to be the closest thing to ground truth that exists in the hypecloaked arena.
Secondary electron image of nanopores in the barnett shale. It is the largest and one of the deepest natural gas play in the united states, located directly under the mahantongo and tully limestone formations. Well head pricing averages crowd sourced help us improve the accuracy of our pricing data bank. A dense, welldocumented account of drilling in the marcellus shale. But its the states most recent energy bonanza that is the main focus of the book. But beyond that, this site is made up of individuals. Marcellus is approximately 1,000 ft thick in central pa, but thins to the north, west, and south. See more ideas about marcellus shale, oil and gas and compressor station. It stretches from upstate new york south through pennsylvania to west virginia and west to.
While geologists have known about the marcellus for decades, it wasnt on the. This book is an attempt to assemble the details of shale gas development from at least one geologic formation, the marcellus shale, using my experience as the basis for a narrative. Department of energy doe in morgantown, west virginia, on a research program known as. Marcellus shale is a sedimentary rock buried thousands of feet beneath the earths surface. The marcellus formation also classified as the marcellus subgroup of the hamilton group, marcellus member of the romney formation, or simply the marcellus shale is a middle devonian age unit of marine sedimentary rock found in eastern north america.
As recently as 2002, the united states geological survey in its assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the appalachian basin province, calculated that the marcellus shale contained an estimated undiscovered resource of about 1. Although parts of the book read like a novel, the author carefully documents the books content. The marcellus shale is named after the town of marcellus, new york near where it. Marcellus shale play energy information administration. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of marcellus, new york, in the united states, it extends throughout much of the appalachian basin.
The marcellus shale named for a distinctive outcropping near the village of marcellus, new york was discovered in the 1840s. With the commercial development of the marcellus shale formation in the northeastern united states, much of that growth has occurred in pennsylvania, a traditionally coal. Utica shale the natural gas giant below the marcellus. Well, i think its the fact that, quite frankly, we all have a lot at stake in this thing they call shale. The first largescale shale gas production was successful on the barnett shale in texas in the late 1990s, followed a few years later by the marcellus shale in pennsylvania. The initial discovery region was in a core area on the eastern side of the play. Current crowd sourced pricing can be view at right, and in the tables below the entry form. The marcellus shale is named after the town of marcellus, new york near where it outcrops at the surface. Feathers out in eastern oh, western wv, and southwestern va. It also contains one of the worlds largest supplies of natural gas, a. Fracking, fortunes, and the fate of the marcellus shale.
Under the surface is an invaluable new book on the gas rush in the pennsylvanianew york border region. We provide indepth information on the positive impacts responsible shale gas production is having on families, businesses, and communities across the region. Guest membership allows you to view well data reports, and view. Information related to pennsylvania unconventional gas well activity, drilling maps that show the path of directional drilling, and well packet permitting information. Fracking the marcellus shale history, science, life, sports. Unconventional resources of shale hydrocarbon in sumatra. The book also includes chapters about the history of oilgas extraction, psychological and sociological effects upon those living in the shale areas, worker safety. Nanopores are so small 20 nanometers nm that they impact the passage of methane molecules. It was known that the shales were gasbearing from around the turn of the last century. Marcellus, so knowing the elevation of the top of the onondaga and the surface elevation at a particular location provides a way to estimate the depth of a well drilled all the way through the marcellus shale. Oct 23, 2010 for decades, the marcellus was known to geology buffs as a 389millionyearold soft rock formation, a mile or more under the appalachian mountains, encompassing 95,000 square miles 246,000. That was a reason the state, unlike new york, allowed gas companies to use hydraulic fracturing or fracking to extract gas from the marcellus shale formation, estimated to be the largest.
Choice 1 november 2012 i think shale gas is a disaster for the planets climate. The marcellus shale coalition msc works with partners in the appalachian basin and across the country to address issues regarding the production of clean, jobcreating, american natural gas. Under the surface is an invaluable new book on the gas rush in the. Try searching on jstor for other items related to this book. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique used by the oil and gas industry to access petroleum reserves in geologic formations that cannot be accessed with conventional drilling. In under the surface, journalist tom wilber details over ten years of natural gas. Although production was started back in the early 2000s, the majority of reserves are untapped and could potentially be enough to supply u. Consists for the most part of sooty black shale and a few beds of mediumgray shale and limestone nodules or beds of dark gray to black limestone. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The pennsylvania center for the book marcellus oil shale. The geochemical and geomechanical assessment of talang akar formation of south sumatra basin illustrates that two interest zones in the depth interval of 20302182 m, called as upper talang akar formation, and 22042396 m, called as lower talang akar formation, are considered as a potential zone for shale hydrocarbon exploration. For jackie root, the marcellus story began about 70 miles west of dimock, near her. Jun 09, 2014 but its the states most recent energy bonanza that is the main focus of the book. In fact, the marcellus shale, named for a town in new york and stretching west to ohio and south to tennessee, is the nations biggest naturalgas.
Shale gas has changed thinking about fossil energy supplies worldwide, but the development of these resources has been controversial. Tom wilber covered the shale story for the binghamton newspaper for years. My first job out of graduate school in 1979 was as a contractor to the u. Under the surface is the first booklength journalistic overview of shale gas development and the controversies surrounding it. Understanding the environmental impacts of shale development published 2018, by daniel soeder a highly qualified and very open early investigator of the marcellus shale natural gas liquids trail storage, crackers, etc. The unit was first described and named as the marcellus shales by j. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of marcellus, new york, in the united states, 3 it extends throughout much of the appalachian basin. The marcellus formation is an underground reserve thought to hold between 84 trillion and 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the mother lode of which stretches from ohio to new york. When the curve is extended out to the value of 24,2 kpa 3500 psi reported for the measured, shutin, initial gas pressure of the marcellus shale in the egsp wv6 well, this calculation shows a gasinplace value for the marcellus shale of 26. Fracking and the shale formation 0 words 6 pages fracking the marcellus shale formation located in western pennsylvania, new york, and ohio is projected to supply an equivalent of 45 years of the united states current energy consumption. The marcellus formation encompasses about 104,000 square miles throughout the appalachian region.
There are over 500,000 new jobs in the united states that exist solely because of our emphasis on accessing shale gas. The marcellus formation or the marcellus shale is a middle devonian age unit of sedimentary. We are not specialists in natural gas geology or engineering. Approximately 40% of these positions are because of what is available through marcellus shale. In the easternmost counties, older rocks are exposed at the surface and the marcellus is not present. The organicrich black shale of the marcellus formation was deposited in a foreland basin roughly paralleling the structural front of the presentday appalachian mountains during the middle devonian time about 390 million years ago harper, 1999. A recently discovered natural gas source is the pennsylvania marcellus shale, which. Guest membership is free, and only requires a valid email address.
A geologic play book for utica shale appalachian basin. Fracking, fortunes, and the fate of the marcellus shale wilber. The utica shale elevation map shown as figure 3 in the right column of this page has contour lines that show the elevation of the base of the utica shale in feet below sea level. Within each chapter of the utica play book, links to corresponding appendices are. Running from southern west virginia through eastern ohio, across central and northeast pennsylvania, and into new york through the southern tier and the catskills, the marcellus shale formation underlies a sparsely populated region that features striking landscapes, critical watersheds, and a struggling economic base. The barnett shale formation lies around the dallasfort worth area of texas and produces gas at depths of 65009500 ft. The devonian marcellus shale and millbor o shale 153 particularly effective in this lithology, which is one of the reasons why drillers like to keep laterals in the basal part of the marcellus. The marcellus formation or the marcellus shale is a middle devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern north america. The marcellus shale, located in the midatlantic appalachian basin, has been identified as a source for natural gas and targeted for hydraulic fracturing recovery methods. It also overlaps its neighboring shale to the north, the utica. Geological survey usgs includes marcellus shale and marcellus formation. These numbers are impressive, but it also comes with a significant number in wages. The massive marcellus shale is arguably the star of the appalachian basin plays. May 14, 2020 founded in 2008, a group of natural gas producers committed to the responsible development of natural gas from the marcellus shale geological formation and the enhancement of the regions economy that can be realized by this cleanburning energy source.
The marcellus formation is a part of the ancient sedimentary system known as the appalachian basin. Fracking the marcellus shale history, science, life. Marcellus shale study petrophysical and geological analysis. When were the gas deposits you write about in the book discovered.
Understanding the environmental impacts of shale development published 2018, by daniel soeder a highly qualified and very open early investigator of the marcellus shale. You are visiting this site as a nonmember, and have limited access to the many features available at marcellusgas. History of the marcellus shale universal royalty company. In some parts of pennsylvania, the utica shale can be over two miles below sea level. Fracking, fortunes, and the fate of the marcellus shale kindle edition by wilber, tom.