Shale — It's the new American gold rush of the 21st century!
In this jobless recovery, it's generating jobs like crazy, and in some of America's most depressed steel-belt wastelands. The key to the bonanza has been the development of a new technology for liquefied natural gas exploration called hydraulic fracturing.
Now, these "shales" of gas have been identified in multiple states across the country: N.Y., Pa., W. Va, Texas, Ark., La.
A Penn State Univ report, issued this past July, finds that in 2008 alone, the Marcellus Shale industry generated $2.3 billion for Pa -- including more than 29,000 jobs and $240 million in state and local taxes.
Learn more about shale below and watch James Rosen's video report .
Shale
• Shale is a very fine-grained sedimentary rock that is easily broken into thin, parallel layers
• Shale can be converted into petroleum liquids, natural gas liquids, and methane by heating the rock
• The largest known U.S. shale formation extends below the surface in much of Pennsylvania and parts of New York, Ohio and West Virginia.
Natural Gas
• Shale production in 2008 was up 70% from the previous year
• Shale can contain a large amount of natural gas
• Shale gas is present across much of the lower 48 States
• The first producing gas well in the U.S. was completed in 1821 in Devonian-aged shale near the town of Fredonia, New York
• With over 10,000 wells drilled to date, the Barnett Shale in Texas is the most prominent shale gas play in the U.S.
Oil
• United States has the richest deposits of oil shale in the world
• U.S. Oil shale deposits are nearly five times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia underlies a surface area of 16,000 square miles
• More than 70% of American oil shale - including the thickest and richest deposits - lies on federal land, primarily in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
• Shale deposits on federal land contain an estimated 1.23 trillion barrels of oil - more than 50 times the nation's proven conventional oil reserves.
Jobs
• Nov 2009: 166,600 employed in oil and gas extraction in the United States
• Oct 2009: Average hourly earnings in oil and gas extraction was $27.26
• There were 75 oil and gas work-related fatalities from 2005-2008 in the U.S
• Nov 2009: Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction unemployment hit 12% (up +224% from Nov 2008)
Energy
• Unconventional gas production is forecast to increase from 46% of total US gas production in 2007 to 64% in 2020.
• Between 1999 and 2008, the national annual average residential natural gas price more than doubled
• Natural gas, coal and oil supply about 85% of the nation's energy, with natural gas supplying about 22% of the total
• The percent contribution of natural gas to the U.S. energy supply is expected to remain fairly constant for the next 20 years
• Natural gas is being consumed by the U.S. economy at a rate that exceeds domestic production and the gap is increasing
• Residential consumers along the Atlantic Coast tend to pay the most for natural gas
Sources:
• American Petroleum Institute Facts About Shale Gas
• BLS Oil and Gas Extraction
• Strategic Significance of America's Oil Shale Resource
• Bureau of Land Management
• DOE // Modern Shale Gas Development
• Strategic Significance of America's Oil Shale Resource
• Bureau of Land Management
• Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer
• US Department of Energy Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States
• EIA
• Strategic Significance of America's Oil Shale Resource
• Bureau of Land Management
• American Petroleum Institute Facts About Shale Gas
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