The Marcellus Shale| February 2020
Field Overview
The Marcellus Shale is the largest gas play onshore in the US. Located in the Northeast, it supplies the high demand markets along the East Coast. Most of the basin’s gas is produced through unconventional methods, while the little oil produced is mostly by conventional means. Some of the top formations include Onondaga and the Huntersville.
State Drilling Statistics
Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 37
Total Rigs in Pennsylvania- 24
Total Rigs in United States- 793
Total U.S. Rigs down 23% YTD
State Top Producers
Top Gas Producer-
Top Oil Producer-
Financial & Economic Updates
Republicans not impressed with Wolf’s budget proposal
Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled his budget proposal on Tuesday, and state Republican lawmakers were not impressed. The proposal calls for increased spending, a fee for state police coverage, a tax on Marcellus Shale production and a tax on municipal waste hauling, to name a few. “This year’s budget proposal is simply more of the same,” said state Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint. “The governor is again seeking to grow state government and calling for increased spending of more than $2 billion in next year’s budget and additional borrowing of well over $1 billion. It’s too high a price to pay for our employers and taxpayers who are working hard to support their families. There were cuts to some very important programs introduced in the proposal as well. State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, mentioned cuts to school safety funding, while Causer mentioned cuts to programs including hardwoods research, livestock and consumer health protection and more.
State Highlights
Water reuse key to the future of shale
In a pair of studies releases earlier this month, scientists with the University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences and three other universities studied how much wastewater eight major U.S. shale basins produced and then analyzed various options for recycling and reusing that water. “The water volumes that are quoted vary widely, that’s why we did this study” UT researcher Bridget Scanlon said in a statement. “This really provides a quantitative analysis of hydraulic fracturing water demand and produced water volumes.” Researchers determined that oil and natural gas wells from those eight shale basins produced more than160 billion gallons of wastewater in 2017 – enough water to fill more than 242,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Natural gas-rich basins such as the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, researchers reported, produce much less wastewater than oil-rich shale plays such as the Permian Basin.
Pennsylvania helped to make the United States the world’s leading energy producer
As we enter this new decade, it’s worth acknowledging America’s energy progress over the past ten years, both economic and environmental, and the role Pennsylvania has played in the U.S. equation. The shale revolution redefined the domestic natural gas and oil sector, propelling the United States to become the world’s leading energy producer in 2018. More recently, our nation became a net exporter of crude and petroleum products for the first time in 70 years, while U.S. carbon dioxide emissions remain at their lowest levels since 1987 and are expected to decline this year over last year. No longer are we beholden to foreign sources of energy.
Refining
Marcellus Production
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