Marcellus Shale estimate increased

A Penn State professor has pieced together the first hard production data on the Appalachian Marcellus Shale and concludes that its natural gas could supply U.S. energy needs for almost two decades.

Professor Terry Engelder of Penn State University says that the field could produce nearly 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, even more than the 392 trillion he estimated at the end of 2008. Pennsylvania holds the lion’s share of the field. Engelder reported his findings in the August issue of Fort Worth Oil and Gas Basin Magazine .

With colleague Gary Nash of the State University of New York at Fredonia, Engelder first identified the potential of the Marcellus Shale as a super giant gas field in January 2008.

“It’s interesting the way this is shaking out,” he says. “Before production data is available, the estimate is largely volume-based. Our original estimate, in January 2008, was a calculated guess, very conservative. Once production data comes in, we can narrow it down. Those numbers are much firmer.”

Under Pennsylvania law, production data is proprietary for five years. Engelder inferred the potential of field by facts reported in filings by publicly held companies, which show that natural gas flow rates in major producers’ Pennsylvania wells have exceeded expectations.

Source: Terry Engelder
Writer: Chris O’Toole