02/01/10 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Until just three years ago, the Marcellus was an obscure name for an obscure rock formation in the backwaters of geological research. Not anymore…
The tipping point came when Penn State professor Terry Engelder demonstrated that the Marcellus holds as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – the equivalent of total US gas consumption for 25 years. There’s over a trillion dollars’ worth of gas down there – probably much more. Even if the estimate is off by 50% or so (and that 500 trillion cubic foot number might be on the LOW side), Marcellus is a very big resource.
Here’s a map showing all of the major shale gas-bearing basins in the US and Canada. The Marcellus is labeled No. 27 – and I don’t mean in terms of size. As you can see, the Marcellus dwarfs all the others.
“It’s about time we found a lot of natural gas that’s near a major market,” our friend Rick Rule commented on the find. The Marcellus area is right next to some of the most important natural gas markets in the world. Really, can you get much closer to New England, or the Eastern Seaboard, or the industrial Midwest of the US?
With news of the gigantic Marcellus resource, the big players are coming to town. They’re leasing acreage, setting up shop, moving equipment and getting ready for the long haul. Drilling the Marcellus will require much deeper wells. The wells will be expensive, and sophisticated – filled with modern down-hole technology. This is a 50-year operation, and probably more.
Byron King
Byron King is the managing editor of Outstanding Investments and Energy & Scarcity Investor. He is a Harvard-trained geologist who has traveled to every U.S. state and territory and six of the seven continents. He has conducted site visits to mineral deposits in 26 countries and deep-water oil fields in five oceans. This provides him with a unique perspective on the myriad of investment opportunities in energy and mineral exploration. He has been interviewed by dozens of major print and broadcast media outlets including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, MSN Money, MarketWatch, Fox Business News, and PBS Newshour.
The Daily Reckoning is your premier source for making sense of the news Washington and Wall Street generate. Each business day, The Daily Reckoning calls on its stable of world-class writers and thinkers to show you how to get ahead.
Start your 100% FREE subscription to The Daily Reckoning today and you’ll get a free research report, “How to Survive the Fall of Social Security.” Simply enter your email address below to get your free report and join over 495,000 worldwide Daily Reckoning subscribers!
We Respect Your Privacy and We will
Never Share or Sell Your Email Address
Yum, can’t wait to taste it in my city tap water.
Uh, and what will burning all this do to global average temperature? Are we serious?
“Drilling the Marcellus will require much deeper wells” Deeper than what? Certainly not deeper than most Barnett, or Haynesville.
And if it’s “much deeper” don’t worry about frac fluids in your city water.
“average global temperature”? You think greenhouse gases are less for coal or fuel oil?
Some continue to overlook the details. Thats how you can tell the difference between someone who has researched it and those who only read the newspaper. Methane off-gasing at all stages of the wells. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas. Natural Gas is CLEAN BURNING. But that is it! All other parts of the process are horrendously bad for people and nature.