Marcellus Plus: The Parfait Shale Play

The Marcellus Shale in the Eastern US has been THE example of the sudden emergence of abundant natural gas. The only issue over the Marcellus is whether or not it or Qatar has the world’s largest gas field, even though as little as six years ago any idea that the shale would be commercial was not discounted so much as derided – somewhat like many UK or European shale plays are today.

The story of shale seems to be that however optimistic and seemingly over the top initial estimates, they end up being wrong. But this isn’t something to give shale deniers any help: the shale plays keep on getting bigger and bigger.

As big as the Marcellus Shale gas bonanza has become, it’s not the only Pennsylvania geologic formation yielding new and unexpected quantities of natural gas.

Two exploration companies have reported promising discoveries in rock formations layered around the Marcellus like a geologic parfait.

“The Marcellus has gotten a lot of great research and a lot of great results, and you might think it’s the only shale play up here of any magnitude,” William Zagorski, Range vice president of geology in Appalachia, said in an interview Friday.

But Zagorski said two new shale formations – the Utica Shale deeper below the surface and the shallower Upper Devonian Shale – were “in the same ballpark” as the Marcellus.

Without going into too much detail, the shale parfait emerging in Pennsylvania can exist geologically in other areas The prime part of the Marcellus in West Virginia and Western PA was originally the US coal belt. Similarly, previous coal production can be an indicator of future shale gas activity. But even more importantly, previous gas production, as we have seen in Texas and Louisiana is precursive of shale production. In Europe, we are already seeing this in the Netherlands and Northern Germany, where gas production was thought to be declining only a year or so back.

If the UK would get shrug off it’s obsession with impending disaster and take a rational optimist view of Southern North Sea gas production, we might find the future less bleak.

In Europe the situation is no different than in Pennsylvania in that we are both in land grab phase. The pessimists say that European shale doesn’t exist, and the smart money is keeping quiet.

Gas operators declined to offer many specifics about the test wells for competitive reasons.

“There’s tremendous amounts of gas in place and potentially a large amount of recoverable gas there,” John H. Pinkerton, Range’s chief executive, told analysts. “So we’ll be coy there.”

Shale deniers often say that the technology is too expensive and/or intrusive. But in the Marcellus and similar parfait plays, the news just keeps on getting better:

In southwestern Pennsylvania, where the gas-rich shales are layered in a column, Range’s Zagorski said the additional strata could be accessed by new wells drilled from existing locations. That would reduce surface disturbances and allow the industry to maximize pipelines and infrastructure built for the Marcellus.

“In southwestern Pennsylvania, there are areas where all three of these shale plays exactly stack over the same well bore, over the same leases,” Zagorski said. “That’s extremely valuable. You’re not having to disturb new ground or to build new pads to access some of these formations.”

As old wells go into decline, new wells could be drilled from the same site, satisfying the industry’s need to constantly develop new sources to maintain price stability.

SOURCE:
No Hot Air: “Marcellus Plus: The Parfait Shale Play”

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Posted by admin on May 23rd, 2010. Filed under Marcellus Shale, Shale Basins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry