What are the issues surrounding the Marcellus Shale?

What are the issues surrounding the Marcellus Shale?

Water-resource issues associated with development of the Marcellus play include the 1) impact of surface-water and groundwater withdrawals for hydraulic fracturing during low-flow periods, 2) disposal of black-shale drill cuttings that may produce acidic, metals-rich drainage with elevated radioisotopes, and 3) …

What is the Marcellus Shale project about?

The Marcellus Shale is a geologic formation of shale rock buried deep under parts of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. This formation contains a large amount of natural gas distributed throughout the shale in cracks and pores.

Why is the Marcellus Shale important?

This shale contains significant quantities of natural gas. New devel- opments in drilling technology, along with higher wellhead prices, have made the Marcellus Shale an important natural gas resource. This water must be recovered from the well and disposed of before the gas can flow.

How does Marcellus Shale impact the environment?

Marcellus Shale and the Impact on the Environment Exploring, drilling, and extracting natural gas within the Marcellus Shale area can potentially impact Pennsylvania’s surface and groundwater, soils, and wildlife habitats.

How deep are Marcellus Shale gas wells?

The Marcellus shale occurs as deep as 9,000 feet below ground surface. At greater depths, the overlying rocks cause greater pressure in the Marcellus formation which can result in higher production rates if properly stimulated.

How much natural gas is in the Marcellus Shale?

The Marcellus Shale contains about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas and 3.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas liquids according to a new assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS).

What are the pros and cons of fracking?

Fracking Pros and Cons

• Access to more gas and oil reserves. Accessing oil and gas from shale, though still finite, helps mitigate the exhaustion of oil and gas resources from conventional extraction methods.
• Self-sufficiency.
• Reduced coal production.
• Jobs creation.
• Energy security.
• Reduced water intensity compared to coal.

Why does fracking occur in Marcellus Shale?

The natural gas is trapped in low-permeability shale, and requires the well completion method of hydraulic fracturing to allow the gas to flow to the well bore. The surge in drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale since 2008 has generated both economic benefits and considerable controversy.

Is Marcellus shale a good reservoir rock?

Long known to be a source rock for many conventional oil and gas reservoirs in the Appalachian basin, the Marcellus shale is now being explored as an unconventional reservoir. In the past, however, the low permeability conditions of the shale reservoir made removal of hydrocarbons economically unfeasible.

Why is shale gas bad?

But US researchers found that shale gas wells leak substantial amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. This makes its climate impact worse than conventional gas, they say – and probably worse than coal as well.

What are the potential consequences to the environment from shale gas development?

The environmental risks of large-scale commercial shale gas development in the United States include water consumption, water contamination, seismic inducement and air pollution.

What state has the most fracking?

bpd = barrels per day. Meanwhile, the bulk of the country’s shale oil production comes from just four states: Texas, North Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming….