New USGS Marcellus Shale Anaylsis Drastically Cuts DOE Estimates
by David Hughes (Post Carbon Institute) This week the USGS released anew assessment of gas resources in the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin. The report is a reasonable effort by the USGS to sort out some of the wheat from the chaff. The 84 Tcf technically recoverable undiscovered resource for the Marcellus is a considerable downgrade from the 262 Tcf technically recoverable resource reported by NETL of the DOE in 2009. Others have been using numbers for the Marcellus in the mid-400’s of Tcf –see for example Engelder (2009) who claims the Marcellus has 489 Tcf of P50 technically recoverable resources.
This number fits with that of Powers, who was citing about 60 Tcf. 84 Tcf, which of course, is less than four years of US consumption. READ MORE and MORE (US Geological Survey Press Release) and MORE (US Geological Survey) Download Report



