Feds Say 1970s Gov’t Study of Devonian Shale Birthed Marcellus

A new federal advisory report says the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays we all make a living from got their start with a taxpayer-funded government study launched in the mid-1970s — and that somewhere between 70% and 90% of the hydrocarbons in a typical shale reservoir are still down there after the well stops flowing. On Sunday, August 31, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) released American Resources for a Secure Future: A National Cooperative Subsurface Assessment Program, the latest installment in a series of studies U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked the NPC to produce. The NPC is a roughly 200-member federal advisory committee to the Energy Secretary, chartered back in 1946. Around 80 experts from industry, state governments, Tribal organizations, universities and the sciences worked on this study, and the full NPC membership voted to approve it.

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