USGS boosts Marcellus gas estimates

August 24, 2011

A new assessment of the Marcellus Shale says the Northeastern U.S. formation may contain 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas, far more than believed less than a decade ago.

The new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey updates a 2002 study of the gas-rich formation that stretches though New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, which concluded the region had about 2 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas.

The growth in the USGS estimate takes into account advances in how drilling and completion techniques – namely horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – that have made more formations accessible.

The agency also estimates there are about 3.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas liquids in the Marcellus, products that currently fetch higher prices than natural gas. the rest