Shale gas is natural gas, whose deposits are found in shale rocks. For a decade, the U.S. gas industry has observed a rapid growth in shale gas production.
The most significant shale growth happened in Pennsylvania, in the Marcellus Shale.
The shale gas
Unlike conventional natural gas, shale gas is trapped in the pores of longtime unreachable sedimentary rock layer. The emergence of new techniques of directional drilling, combined with the horizontal hydro-fracking technology, has enabled to make its exploitation feasible.
In the early 2000s, prompted by oil price increase linked to the global oil and gas production stagnation and the increase of Us demand, a large-scale exploitation of the shale gas began. The Energy Information Administration considers that share of U.S.
shale gas production will reach over 50% of total natural gas by 2040. The total gas production will increase from 24 trillion cubic feet in 2013 to over 33 trillion in 2040, 87% of this rise being bound to the shale gas boom.
The Marcellus Shale
Now, United States remain the number one world's shale gas producer, and an investment usa in this field should be highly profitable. The US’s most developed shale producer is in Texas, in Barnett Shale. Here, the digging began in the late 90s, and the production dramatically increased since the use of horizontal fracking, in 2003.
However, the most interesting domestic development occurred in Pennsylvania. Analysts are paying particular attention to the marcellus shale ci region, where production is bursting out, and where the effects on local businesses have been rapidly witnessed, especially in the northeastern and southwestern counties.
In these areas, the unemployment rate decreases, and the agricultural producers are earning enough royalties to modernize their holdings.
Environmental concerns...
Despite some forecasts of shale gas development collapse, manufacturing usa and gas industries are getting seethed as the number of new drilling procedures headed higher. Marcellus shale is estimated to store over 1 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, for a daily production of an equivalent of 2 million oil barrels.
However, the new technologies are far to convince the environmentalists. Throughout the country, heated and passionate debates occurred. Hydro-fracking technology has involved without deepened consideration and studies of its potential environmentally and sanitary effects...
