The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has regularly-updated maps of oil and gas drilling activity available on their website. They also have maps of permits issued and wells drilled with separate tabulations for the Marcellus Shale.

Over the past decade the use of renewable energy is becoming more important to people, industry and governments. Why? Renewable energy resources are not depleted, they are becoming less expensive, and they have a softer environmental impact.

The price of natural gas is not uniform across the United States. Instead, the price is determined by supply, demand, proximity to production, regulatory environments and the cost of natural gas that is flowing in the local distribution system. More at Geology.com.

The Wall Street Journal has an article titled: “America’s Natural Gas Revolution: A ‘shale gale’ of unconventional and abundant U.S. gas is transforming the energy market.”

The American Petroleum Institute and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have prepared a report titled: “The Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the U.S. Economy: Employment, Labor Income and Value Added”. It is a .pdf document.

Researchers have argued for a long time about some natural gas being generated in the mantle without any organic material being present. Experimental studies now show that natural gas can be produced at mantle temperature/pressure conditions without organics.

The 11th annual Unconventional Gas Conference will be begin on Wednesday November 18th at the Telus Convention Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. More details from the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas.

All of the recent gas shale activity has been responsible for much of the 35% increase in natural gas reserves reported by the Potential Gas Committee. An article in the New York Times provides details on where these new reserves came from and how they might impact prices, uses and markets.

“The U.S. Department of Energy announces the release of Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. The Primer provides regulators, policy makers, and the public with an objective source of information on the technology advances and challenges that accompany deep shale gas development.” Quoted from fossil.energy.gov. Download the .pdf

The Haynesville Shale gas play is occurring in northwestern Louisiana, southwest Arkansas and eastern Texas. Most of the producing wells are in Caddo Parish, Bienville Parish, Bossier Parish, DeSoto Parish, Red River Parish and Webster Parish, Louisiana.

The Marcellus Shale occurs beneath portions of Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky.  This map shows the geographic extent of where this gas-bearing shale is present in the subsurface.

Drilling activity in the Fayetteville shale has so far been confined to a trend through northern Arkansas. The approximate extent of the drilling is shown in the map at left. Wells targeting the Fayetteville have been drilled in Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Franklin, Independence, Jackson, Johnson, Lee, Phillips, Pope, Prairie, Sebastian, St. Francis, Van Buren, Washington, White and Woodruff Counties.