DOE Marcellus Research Finds High Frack Pressure Keeps Gas Trapped
Here’s a little known fact: Fracking for natural gas in shale only extracts about 20% of the methane gas that’s trapped in shale rock, meaning (of course) that 80% of the gas gets left behind. Researchers with the Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) Los Alamos National Laboratory have made what we consider an astonishing breakthrough discovery: Too much pressure used during fracking actually locks some of the methane away tighter in the shale, instead of loosening it. In a published paper revealing their results (full copy below), researchers recommend a range of pressures to use to optimize (increase) recovery rates for methane in the Marcellus.
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The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 1 to 348 over the past week, after having going up by 11 and 13 (respectively) the two weeks prior. However, the count in the Marcellus Shale dropped by three rigs in the wet gas area and the Marcellus dry gas region gained 1 rig, for a net loss of two.
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 11 to 347 over the past week, after having going up by 13 the week before (see 
Rystad Energy, headquartered in Norway, is an independent energy research and business intelligence company providing data, tools, analytics and consultancy services to the global energy industry. Rystad’s latest emailed newsletter contains a forecast for North American shale oil and gas production and capital investments, with the focus on the key contributing shale plays (including the Marcellus and the Utica). It is a fascinating forecast that shows a big increase coming in both shale oil and shale gas production between now and 2030.
Methane (CH4) is one of the most abundant, naturally-occurring organic compounds on Planet Earth. And yet loony leftists claim it’s a pollutant and killing the planet. Go figure. We’ve always been fans of using methane as a fuel substitute for gasoline. But let’s face it, storing it in high-pressure tanks (CNG) or liquefying it and storing it at minus 260 degrees (LNG), is not an ideal way to use it in moving vehicles. It’s not handy or easy and takes special tanks. Researchers may just have found a solution for that problem.
A newly published paper by researchers with Harvard University tried its best to make a connection between fracking and high levels of radiation–and failed. You won’t know that by reading biased media accounts of the study nor by reading comments from so-called experts reporting on the findings. But when you read the study itself (below), the inescapable conclusion is that Harvard researchers didn’t prove a darned thing, other than there’s no real threat to human (or animal) health from air emissions coming from fracked oil and gas wells.
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 13 to 336 over the past week, after having slid backward the week before (see 
Strange times. It’s not the kind of thing you want to be known for typically–that your shale region will lead the way among all shale regions across the country in *reducing* production in the coming month. Yet that’s what the latest Drilling Productivity Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (released yesterday) shows–and most folks in the Marcellus/Utica region will be happy about it.
Each year the International Energy Agency (IEA) issues a special World Energy Outlook report. The 2020 edition was released this morning. Of course, the pandemic and energy demand destruction resulting from the pandemic is front and center in this report. The report forecasts global energy demand will drop by 5% in 2020, energy-related CO2 emissions by 7%, and energy investment by 18%. When will things turn around?
After a couple of weeks of double-digit gains in the Enverus national rig count, last week the count slipped backward by 3 (for the week ending Oct. 7). The Marcellus lost two rigs last week. The Haynesville, a gassy shale play in Lousiana and competitor to the Marcellus/Utica, picked up 2 rigs.
The results of a new study conducted by Penn State researchers surprised them. The study looked at who and how much influence happens with state regulations adopted for fracking. The operating assumption, based on an incessantly biased media, is that states are in the dark and beholden to the oil and gas industry. That “frackers” ride roughshod over state regulators. The researchers found that’s simply not the case.
It’s like the coming and going of the four seasons (or two seasons if you live in Binghamton, NY, summer for two months, winter the rest of the time). On a regular schedule, anti-fossil fuel organizations fund “studies” that supposedly show links between fracking and harmful effects to humans who live near fracking. The latest junk science study (in a long line of such studies) claims to show there have been harmful effects from air emissions from gas well sites in southwest Pennsylvania.
Consulting powerhouse Ernst & Young (EY) has just published results from a new survey titled “Oil & Gas Digital Transformation and Workforce Survey.” The survey/study finds “digital transformation” of oil and gas companies is essential to the future of our industry. What, exactly, is “digital transformation”? We’ll tell you.