Natural Gas from Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale Natural Gas estimated reserve has been reduced from 262 trillion cubic feet of gas in 2009 to 84 trillion cubic feet of gas this year from the Energy Information Agency of America. What the American consumer needs to realize is that this is just an estimate and not a hard fact.

The hard facts of this massive shale oil and natural gas deposit are that it covers an area from the Great Lakes to the north of New York all the way down the Appalachian Mountains to Alabama. The exact amount of trapped energy reserves that is recoverable will never really be known.

This layer of shale rock is on average 2000 to 9000 feet deep. This is well below the water tables in nearly every region it is located in. There is also enough in the smallest amount that has been estimated for the natural gas deposit to be present to supply every home in America with this domestic energy source for 4 years. The upper end is 100 years.

Marcellus Shale Economy

The economic boom in this region of the country is a welcome boost to the working class people that live there. The jobs will come from supplying the raw materials for the wells. This will include the frac sand for the hydrofracking of the wells. These jobs will be on the rail lines transporting the material along with the transloading stations that will place the material on the tractor trailers and the drivers that will haul the cargo to its final destination. All of those jobs do not even include the well teams that will be necessary.

All of these workers will also need to eat, places to stay and supplies of their own. The communities that embrace this domestic energy reserve can finds themselves out of the recession faster than those that are protesting the projects.

The major oil and gas producers are starting to build the processing plants that are necessary to handle this vast amount of energy when it is recovered. For those communities that no not desire to be a part of it just might find themselves bypassed.

Hydrofracking in Marcellus Shale

The concern over the drinking water has only been drummed up by those that are not looking at the facts. Hydrofracking has been in use for both energy well and drinking water wells for over 100 years. It is a safe and the only process that can break the shale rock formation so the natural gas and oil can be recovered.

The Marcellus Shale Natural Gas reserve is a boom for the regional economies and the best domestic natural energy resource available today. There is no substitute, even the electric cars need energy that is created by natural gas.