Federal Agency: Responsible Use of Hydraulic Fracturing “Has Increased Markedly” the Size of U.S. Natural Gas Reserves
WASHINGTON – America’s shale gas resource base is poised to increase 88 percent by the year 2035 assuming key technologies such as hydraulic fracturing remain intact and available to U.S. energy producers. That’s the conclusion released this week by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington. In its Annual Energy Outlook 2010, EIA projects that over the next 25 years, natural gas prices and net imports will decrease by 14 and 44 percent, respectively over the next 25 years — a function, according to the independent agency, of natural gas production in the lower 48 increasing by 17 percent over that time.
Subsequent to the release of the study, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“America’s abundant and clean-burning shale gas resources, and the technologies used to safely produce them, represent a critical and positive turning point for our nation’s energy pathway forward. The results of this independent study not only reinforce this promise and potential, but it also underscores the importance that hydraulic fracturing will continue to play in leveraging these job-creating, homegrown reserves into affordable energy and long-term security.
“And while this study demonstrates that a clear blueprint exists to help drive down energy costs for American consumers, as well as our dependence on unstable regions of the world to fuel our economy, it also highlights what locking up our abundant shale gas resources could mean for our nation. Adding layers of unnecessary federal regulations to hydraulic fracturing – which is tightly regulated by energy-producing states – could put our nation’s energy potential out of reach.”
NOTE: Click HERE to view the section of the study entitled “Importance of low permeability natural gas reservoirs.” Key experts provided below:
The use of hydraulic fracturing in conjunction with horizontal drilling in shale gas formations and the use of hydraulic fracturing in tight gas formations has opened up natural gas resources that would not be commercially viable without these technologies. As shale gas production has expanded into more basins and recovery technology has improved, the size of the shale gas resource base in the AEO has increased markedly.
No Shale Gas Drilling case. Starting in 2010, in this case no new onshore lower 48 shale gas production wells are drilled. Natural gas production from shale gas wells drilled before 2010 declines continuously through 2035.
High Shale Gas Resource case. In this case, the unexploited portion of each shale formation supports twice as many new wells as in the Reference case. The lower 48 shale gas resource base increases by 88 percent, from 347 trillion cubic feet in the Reference case to 652 trillion cubic feet in the High Shale Gas Resource case.
In the No Shale Gas Drilling and No Low-Permeability Gas Drilling cases, lower 48 onshore natural gas productive capacity is less than in the Reference case, and as a result average U.S. natural gas prices are higher, more natural gas is imported, and natural gas consumption is reduced. Conversely, in the High Shale Gas Resource case, natural gas productive capacity is higher, natural gas prices and imports are lower, and consumption is higher than projected in the Reference case.
