Posted by
Gray Ghost on Friday, September 26, 2008 8:07:41 PM
In 2002, the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) made a hugh discovery in a 54,000 square-mile swath (stretching from West Virginia to New York) in the Appalachian Mountains. Geologists call this area the "Marcellus Ridge". The drawing below indicates the area of this ridge:
These geologists have conservatively estimated that the Marcellus shale contains 168 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in place and optimistically suggests that the amounts could be as high as 516 trillion cubic feet. The U.S. currently produces roughly 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year from our existing wells. Due to the age of most of the existing natural gas wells, this number (i.e., 30 trillion cubic feet) is dropping.
The technology exists to easily recover 50 trillion cubic feet of gas from the Marcellus Ridge, thus keeping the U.S. production up. If this recovery is realized, the Marcellus Ridge would be considered a "Super Giant" gas field (the geologists' words, not mine).
Why then, you might ask, has no one really heard about this news? Well there are two reasons. First, in most states, geologic surveys are released to the public almost instantly. In Texas, for example, a survey must be released in 60 days or less. In Oklahoma and Nevada there are similar laws. However, in Pennsylvania (where the majority of this field is located) the information doesn't have to be made public for a full five years.
Second, guess who is playing "fast and loose" with this knowledge? If you guessed Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the Democrat Party, then go to the head of the class.
My "so called conspiracy theories" are starting to multiply.