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Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale

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Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale By Daniel J. Soeder1 and William M. Kappel2 Introduction What is the Marcellus Shale? Why is the Marcellus Shale an Important Gas Resource? he Marcellus Shale is a The Marcellus Shale forms Tsedimentary rock formation the bottom or basal part of a thick Organic matter deposited with deposited over 350 million years ago sequence of Devonian age, the Marcellus Shale was compressed in a shallow inland sea located in sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian and heated deep within the Earth over the eastern United States where the Basin. This sediment was deposited geologic time, forming hydrocarbons, present-day Appalachian Mountains by an ancient river delta, the remains including natural gas. The gas occurs now stand (de Witt and others, 1993). of which now form the Catskill in fractures, in the pore spaces This shale contains significant Mountains in New quantities of natural gas. New devel- York (Schwietering, opments in drilling technology, along 1979). The basin with higher wellhead prices, have floor subsided under made the Marcellus Shale an important the weight of the natural gas resource. sediment, resulting The Marcellus Shale extends in a wedge-shaped from southern New York across deposit (fig. 2) that Pennsylvania, and into western is thicker in the Maryland, West Virginia, and eastern east and thins to the Ohio (fig. 1). The production of com- west. The eastern, mercial quantities of gas from this thicker part of the shale requires large volumes of water sediment wedge to drill and hydraulically fracture the is composed of rock. This water must be recovered sandstone, siltstone, from the well and disposed of before and shale (Potter the gas can flow. Concerns about the and others, 1980), availability of water supplies needed whereas the thinner for gas production, and questions sediments to the about wastewater disposal have been west consist of finer- raised by water-resource agencies grained, organic- and citizens throughout the Marcellus rich black shale, Shale gas development region. This interbedded with Fact Sheet explains the basics of organic-lean gray Marcellus Shale gas production, with shale. The Marcellus the intent of helping the reader better Shale was deposited understand the framework of the as an organic-rich water-resource questions and concerns. mud across the Appalachian Basin before the influx of 1U.S. Geological Survey, MD-DE-DC Water Science Center, 5522 Research Park Drive, the majority of the Baltimore, MD 21228 younger Devonian 2U.S. Geological Survey, New York Water sediments, and was Figure 1. Distribution of the Marcellus Shale (modified from Science Center, 30 Brown Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 buried beneath them. Milici and Swezey, 2006). U.S. Department of the Interior Fact Sheet 2009–3032 Printed on recycled paper U.S. Geological Survey May 2009 2 Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale Figure 2. West to east line of section A-A’ of Middle and Upper Devonian rocks in the Appalachian Basin. The Marcellus Shale is the lowest unit in the sequence (modified from Potter and others, 1980). between individual mineral grains, and of the resource, estimating recoverable to intercept sets of existing, natural is chemically adsorbed onto organic gas, and determining the most effec- fractures within the shale (fig. 3), a matter within the shale (Soeder, 1988). tive technology for gas extraction. The network of flowpaths could be To produce commercial amounts of EGSP shale stimulation experiments created. natural gas from such fine-grained tested a wide variety rock, higher permeability flowpaths of hydrofracs and must be intercepted or created in the other techniques. formation. This is generally done using Results were some- a technique called hydraulic fracturing what uneven, and or a “hydrofrac,” where water under DOE concluded high pressure forms fractures in the that stimulation rock, which are propped open by sand alone was gener- or other materials to provide pathways ally insufficient to for gas to move to the well. Petroleum achieve commercial engineers refer to this fracturing shale gas production process as “stimulation.” (Horton, 1982). It From the mid-1970s to early was suggested that 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy better success could (DOE) funded the Eastern Gas Shales be obtained by tar- Project (EGSP) to develop new tech- geting specific for- nology in partnership with industry mations in specific that would advance the commercial locations. The EGSP development of Devonian shale gas results did indicate Figure 3. Marcellus Shale drill core from West Virginia, 3.5 (Schrider and Wise, 1980). Goals of that if the hydraulic inches in diameter, containing a calcite-filled vertical natural the project included assessing the size fractures were able fracture. Photograph by Daniel Soeder, USGS. 3 Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale turned 90 degrees to penetrate long horizontal distances, sometimes over a mile, through the Marcellus Shale bedrock. Hydraulic fractures are then created into the rock at intervals from the horizontal section of the borehole, allowing a substantial number of high-permeability pathways to contact a large volume of rock (fig. 5). According to Range Resources (2008), one of the first major horizontal drill- ers of Marcellus Shale, these wells typically produce gas at a rate of about Figure 4. Wellhead price of natural gas since the mid-1970s to January 2009. [Source 4 MMCF (million cubic feet) per day. U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2009.] Over its lifetime, each horizontal well on an 80-acre surface spacing can be expected to produce a total of about In the mid-1980s, the Institute of Why is the Marcellus Shale 2.5 BCF (billion cubic feet) of gas at Gas Technology (IGT) in Chicago per- Being Developed Now? an estimated production cost of $1.00 formed some laboratory analyses on per MCF (Chernoff, 2008). EGSP shale samples (Soeder, 1988). Low prices for natural gas, and Published IGT lab measurements ineffective production technology did What are the Water-Resource found that a “gas-in-place” value for little to spark interest in Devonian Concerns About Developing the Marcellus Shale at pressures rep- shale gas in the 1990s, despite the Natural Gas Wells in the resentative of production depths may publication of the IGT Marcellus Marcellus Shale? be as high as 26.5 standard cubic feet gas-in-place estimates. Two factors of gas per cubic foot of rock (Soeder, working together have promoted the Substantial amounts of water are 1988). This greatly exceeded earlier current high levels of interest in the required for the drilling and stimula- gas-in-place estimates for Devonian Marcellus Shale. First, wellhead prices tion of a Marcellus Shale gas well. shale by the National Petroleum for gas have risen from values of less Fluids recovered from the well, includ- Council (1980), which ranged from than $2.00 per MCF (thousand cubic ing the liquids used for the hydrofrac, 0.1 to 0.6 standard cubic feet of gas feet) in the 1980s (fig. 4) to a peak and any produced formation brines, per cubic foot of rock. Although IGT of $10.82 per MCF in the summer must be treated and disposed of prop- analyzed only one sample of Marcellus of 2008 (U.S. Energy Information erly. Three important water-resource Shale, the large volumes of gas now Administration, being produced from this formation 2009). Although substantiate the early discovery of prices had declined significant gas reserves. to $5.15 per MCF in In 2008, two professors January 2009 due to at Pennsylvania State University and the economic down- the State University of New York turn, they are still (SUNY) Fredonia estimated that about substantially higher 50 TCF (trillion cubic feet) of recov- than a decade earlier. erable natural gas could be extracted The second from the Marcellus Shale (Engelder factor that spurred and Lash, 2008). In November 2008, interest in the on the basis of production information development of the from Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Marcellus Shale is a the estimate of recoverable gas from new application of the Marcellus Shale was raised to an existing drilling more than 363 TCF (Esch, 2008). technology known The United States uses about 23 TCF as directional drill- of natural gas per year (U.S. Energy ing, which involves Information Administration, 2009), steering a downhole so the Marcellus gas resource may be drill bit in a direction Figure 5. Combination of directional drilling and hydraulic large enough to supply the needs of the other than vertical. fracturing technology used for gas production from the entire Nation for roughly 15 years at An initially vertical Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin (modified from the current rates of consumption. drillhole is slowly http://geology.com/articles/marcellus-shale.shtml). 4 Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale Shale gas production areas, but not yet fully implemented. Transporting Fluids and Supplies Large hydrofrac treatments often involve moving large amounts of equipment, vehicles, and supplies into remote areas (fig. 6). Transporting all of this to drill sites over rural Appalachian Mountain roads could potentially cause erosion, and threaten local small watersheds with sediment. Drill pad and pipeline construction also have the potential to cause similar problems. Of equal concern is the possibility for spills or leaks into water bodies as the fluids and chemical additives are transported and handled. Little is known about how a Marcellus Shale drilling “boom” might adversely affect the land, streams, and available Figure 6. A hydraulic fracturing stimulation in 2007 on a Marcellus Shale gas well showing water supplies in the Appalachian the amount of equipment involved. Basin. Even under current Marcellus gas production levels, complaints of rural road damage and traffic disrup- tion from drilling equipment have been concerns related to Marcellus Shale gallons of water per treatment (Harper, received, indicating that this could be gas production are: 2008).
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