What type of rocks can be found in Utica?
The Utica Shale is a black, calcareous, organic-rich shale of Middle Ordovician age that underlies significant portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Quebec and other parts of eastern North America (see Figure 1).
What is under the Utica Shale?
The average well was estimated to produce 1.13 billion cubic feet of gas. The same year, the US Geological Survey estimated that the Utica Shale had 38.2 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable gas, 940 million barrels of oil, and 208 million barrels of natural gas liquids.
Is there oil under the Marcellus Shale?
EIA estimates proven reserves in the Marcellus Play of 77.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) at year end 2015 which makes it one of the largest natural gas plays in the U.S. The Marcellus has oil reserves of 143 million barrels (MMbbls).
How did the Marcellus Shale form?
How did the Marcellus Shale form? About 390 million years ago, what is now western Pennsylvania was part of a large inland sea. Biological matter and organisms dropped to this sea floor over time and mixed with sediments brought into the sea by rivers from the surrounding landmass.
Where is the Utica Shale?
The Utica Shale is a massive formation that lies beneath portions of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and a part of Canada.
How much was Josh Fox lease?
In 2008, filmmaker Josh Fox received a $100,000 offer to lease his 19 acres in northeastern Pennsylvania for drilling by the booming natural gas industry.
Why is the Marcellus Shale important?
This shale contains significant quantities of natural gas. New devel- opments in drilling technology, along with higher wellhead prices, have made the Marcellus Shale an important natural gas resource. This water must be recovered from the well and disposed of before the gas can flow.
How long will the Marcellus Shale last?
That’s this: Just how long will the gas beneath the Marcellus formation last? There’s a shockingly wide range of opinions on the subject — from as little as seven and a half years to as much as 100 years.
What is the Marcellus Shale bed?
The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, in the United States, it extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin.
Why Ohio for the Utica Shale?
Ohio is the primary focus of current activity because this state has the thickest accumulation of the Point Pleasant formation which underlies the Utica Shale. The Point Pleasant is a hybrid fine-grained reservoir system composed of organic-rich carbonates interlayered with organic-rich calcareous shale.
What is the difference between the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale?
The rock units that occur between the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale follow this trend. In central Pennsylvania, the Utica can be up to 7000 feet below the Marcellus Shale, but that depth difference decreases to the west. In eastern Ohio the Utica can be less than 3000 feet below the Marcellus.
Where is the Utica Shale located in Quebec?
Quebec. Drilling and producing from the Utica Shale began in 2006 in Quebec, focusing on an area south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. Interest has grown in the region since Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. announced a significant discovery there after testing two vertical wells.
Is the Utica Shale the world’s largest natural gas field?
Now, just a few years later, the Marcellus Shale has become one of the world’s largest natural gas fields, and the Utica Shale – located a few thousand feet below the Marcellus – has become a new drilling target. The oil and natural gas potential of the Utica Shale is not fully understood.