Subscribe to Blog ContentMarcellus Formation is a Middle Devonian-age black organic-rich shale in the Appalachian Basin covering 2.4 million acres in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and parts of Ohio. High flow rates and plans for 24 to 30 new and expanded pipeline projects in the next three years indicate Marcellus shale play is worth watching. Marcellus has successfully modeled Barnett Shale of Fort Worth, which has seen a 3,000 percent rate of growth from 1998 to 2007.
In fact, Marcellus production may exceed Barnett Shale, but not without challenges. Marcellus needs a lot of infrastructure work before it can see this come to fruition. Several geology professors estimated that Marcellus might hold over 500 trillion cubic feet of gas as of 2008.
Several state environmental organizations have specific requests in how they want to protect their resources, something other shale plays don't face. This requires that companies in Marcellus to make adjustments to construction plans. Companies also need to tackle hiring people from the region who have the qualifications.
Some companies working in Marcellus have worked in other shale plays including Barnett, Eagle Ford, Fayetteville and Haynesville. Because of this, they have the experience in handling the challenges Marcellus sees including extreme terrains and weather, unique regulations and hiring qualified workers from the region.
Several companies working in Marcellus Shale have reported successes. CNX Gas Corp. states that it has a well in Green County, Pa. that produces 4.9 million cubic feet per day on average with a peak production rate of 5.7 million cubic feet. According to CNX Gas, it plans to allocate $110 million of out of its $400 million capital budget to Marcellus Shale.
Canadian oil and gas company, Enbridge Inc., plans to build a natural gas liquid (NGL) pipeline to extend from Marcellus in Southern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia to an existing NGL infrastructure near Chicago.
Furthermore, Bentek Energy research indicates that by 2014, natural gas production in the Appalachian Basin will grow from 2.2 billion cubic feet per day to 4 to 6 million per day. This could potentially help Marcellus displace traditional gas supplies in the Northeast.
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