Cool! I did not know about the reduction of the natural gas estimate. Thanks for the tip! Here's an article on it. This is a good illustration of the earlier references to the term
technically recoverable. I mean, it sounds pretty reassuring, right? In truth though, it is a guess based partly on present sure knowledge and partly on guesses based on geology. Oversimplified - I found salamanders under rocks in creeks before. This creek has lots of rocks, therefor there may be lots of salamanders. You don't really know how many salamanders until you start looking under more rocks.
This is what has happened in the Marcellus. They are finding fewer salamanders than they thought might be out there.
I'm still on the fence somewhat about fracking and water contamination. I definitely want to get hysterical about it but so far the solid information at hand does not seem to warrant it. It definitely warrants concern and caution. Certainly it uses a lot of water and creates a waste disposal problem. There have been incidents of contamination, but I can't characterize them as wide spread or endemic. OTOH, the practice is still fairly new, and I'm guessing it may take years to see if the additives or fossil fuel deposits migrate much into water sources. Time will tell.
U.S. Cuts Estimate for Marcellus Shale Gas Reserves by 66% - Bloomberg
Quote:
The U.S. Energy Department cut its estimate for natural gas reserves in the Marcellus shale formation by 66 percent, citing improved data on drilling and production.
About 141 trillion cubic feet of gas can be recovered from the Marcellus shale using current technology, down from the previous estimate of 410 trillion, the department said today in its Annual Energy Outlook. About 482 trillion cubic feet can be produced from shale basins across the U.S., down 42 percent from 827 trillion in last year’s outlook.
“Drilling in the Marcellus accelerated rapidly in 2010 and 2011, so that there is far more information available today than a year ago,” the department said. The estimates represent unproved technically recoverable gas. The daily rate of Marcellus production doubled during 2011.
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