ipl-logo

Marcellus Shale Drilling

1032 Words5 Pages

The high-paying jobs available today in the Marcellus Shale gas industry are expected to multiply in the future due to the need of work force, meeting the needs of gas companies’ efforts to increase drilling and production across the region. In addition to all of the jobs that go into directly operating gas drilling rigs, opportunities are also available in a number of professional and skilled areas. Some of the areas that most people could work in are:
• Engineering and surveying
• Construction and earthmoving
• Equipment manufacturing, service and repair
• Environmental permitting
• Water transport/wastewater management
• Well servicing
• General labor
• Legal, accounting and other professional services
There are still many more job areas …show more content…

On average there were two wells per pad, or roughly 3,200 pads in the state. Each pad consumes between 5 and 8 acres of land. This means that, as of 2012, Marcellus Shale drilling had affected about 20,800 acres of land, which is .07% of the total land area of the state. Each drill site requires between 3 and 5 million gallons of water per frack. Based on about 1,500 horizontal wells fracked in 2011, Pennsylvania used about 12-20 million gallons of water per day for Marcellus Shale drilling, which represents about .5-.8% of the 9.5 billion gallons of water the state uses daily. Drilling companies must identify where wastewater, or flow back, will be treated and stored as part of the drilling permit application process. They must also adhere to the guidelines created by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for water disposal. DEP dictates that flow back must be treated to have a total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration of 500 parts per million or less for discharge into surface water bodies, which is consistent with as of August 2011, there is currently only one facility in the state, in Williamsport, that is capable of treating water according to this standard. The Marcellus Shale lies underneath about 90,000 square miles of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. It lies at varying depths from the surface to 9,000 …show more content…

In the subsurface, the Utica Shale is located a few thousand feet below the Marcellus Shale, which has become widely known as a source of natural gas. The Utica Shale is currently receiving a lot of attention because it is yielding large amounts of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil to wells drilled in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The United States. Geological Survey's mean estimates of undiscovered, technically recoverable unconventional resources indicate that the Utica Shale contains about 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 940 million barrels of oil, and 208 million barrels of natural gas liquids. Geologists have long considered the Utica Shale to be an oil and natural gas source rock. Natural gas and oil generated in the Utica Shale have migrated upwards and are produced from reservoirs in overlying rock units. An even greater quantity of oil and natural gas is still trapped in the Utica

Show More
Related

Differences And Similarities Between Gasland 2 And Truthland

1633 Words | 7 Pages

Another professional Shelly interviewed was Dr. Joseph Martin, a professor in Department of Civil, Architecture, and environmental engineer at Drexel University. Her question to the professor was “How is gas drilling compared to coal mining? What is the effect on the environment?” Dr. Martin stated, “The surface impact of this hydro fracking is phenomenally lower than anything you could do. As far as safety issues of natural gas drilling, they’re minimal.

Read More

Flower Mound Case Study

736 Words | 3 Pages

In Flower Mound, Texas, residents called upon the state to investigate an alarming spike in the number of children with leukemia, a form of cancer which affects white blood cell production in the body and compromises one’s immune system. In half a dozen Texas counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there were higher rates of invasive breast cancer than anywhere else in the state (Rawlins). Some residents and researchers alike attribute this startling health trend to the natural gas industry and its overwhelming presence in the Lone Star state. In fact, Texas ranks number one in natural gas production nationally, and accounted for nearly thirty percent of all of the US’ natural gas production in 2011 (Davis). Natural gas fracturing or “fracking”

Read More

Should The United States Drill For Alaska Dbq Essay

722 Words | 3 Pages

The U.S. uses 25% to 30% of the oil produced in the world, yet has less than 3% of known oil reserves,” (Doc C Paragraph 3).This is important because if becoming self-sufficient is impossible than is drilling even worth

Read More

Social Changes In Texas Oil Boom In The Early 1900's

1016 Words | 5 Pages

Even though many social changes came with the oil boom in Texas some do stand out more than others the most important one would be job opportunities for American people, but more

Read More

Drilling In Alaska Dbq

489 Words | 2 Pages

Drilling in Alaska “ In reality drilling is the slowest, dirtiest, and most expensive way to solve our energy crisis”-Lois Capps. This quote explains how there different ways to solve our problems and drilling is not the right way to solve this. In addition to costing a lot of money, it would also destroy animal habitats.

Read More

Hydrofracking Research Paper

1593 Words | 7 Pages

This began to cause controversy when a veteran scientist whistleblower, Weston Wilson, called the study “scientifically unsound” (The Halliburton Loophole). Wilson encouraged the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a new study which did not involve the opinions of members of the hydrofracking industry so it would hopefully be non-biased (the Halliburton Loophole). While the integration of the hydrofracking industry into the Safe water Drinking Act appeared to be a good thing for regulating the industry, there is still a long way to go when it comes to actually controlling what is injected into the ground and its

Read More

How Do Environmental Issues Affect The Dine Tribe

1316 Words | 6 Pages

Now imagine other properties, such as, Indian owned land, private lands, and state lands that are not included in the number of acres used for gas and oil sites. Drilling on federal and Indian lands are primarily regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). As of March 2, 2017, there were approximately 29,996 approved oil wells and approximately 27,780 approved natural gas wells in NM alone (Fracking in New Mexico). Majority of the Dine people living on the reservation don't have access to clean, running water and they must haul it in tanks or barrows back home or to a crop field.

Read More

Essay On Louisiana Coast

711 Words | 3 Pages

Although there has been a delay in oil and gas production in recent years, continuous state is an important substance in the US petrochemical industry. Of the US $ 747 billion in domestic refined oil production, US $ 71 billion (9.5% of all domestic production) is attributed to coastal

Read More

Oil Fracking In Texas

721 Words | 3 Pages

According to Climatecentral.org, “fracking for natural gas used to produce electricity may make Texas more drought resistant as the state shifts from coal power generation to natural gas power generation” (Magill). This could be a major breakthrough for Texas because not only would we produce electricity and save our environment, but we would also save millions of gallons of water. The amount of water we could save by shifting from coal to natural gas plants “is up to 50 times the amount of water lost in fracking to extract the natural gas from underground shale formations. According to the article, “The study’s authors estimate that for every gallon of water used to frack for natural gas, Texas saved 33 gallons of water by using that gas for electricity generation rather than producing the same amount of power with coal” (Magill).

Read More

Essay On Fracking

1699 Words | 7 Pages

Fracking has actually been taking place since the 1940’s, but not until it was combined with horizontal drilling was it extremely useful (“Hydraulics” 71-75). In the past fifteen years the fracking business has skyrocketed. By 2015 thirty-five thousand wells are using fracking methods in order to extract the natural gases each year. Ninety percent of all gas production in the United States would be impossible without fracking (“Hydraulics” 71-75). More than ninety percent of natural gas wells in the U.S. rely on fracking (Howarth, Ingraffea, and Engelder).

Read More

Oil Boom In North Dakota

340 Words | 2 Pages

Boom or Bust Just a few years ago Williston, North Dakota, was a quiet small town, with a population of around 12,000. Due to the oil prices and drilling, Williston is America’s biggest oil boom and had over 40,000 residents. The oil boom has caused many problems in North Dakota such as increasing the crime and social problems, housing and roads. There is a lot of wear and tear on the roads, because of the thousands of trucks that are hauling oil, water and other fracking components. According to the Department of Transportation, the state has invested $1.16 billion into the roads.

Read More

Fracking Persuasive Essay

679 Words | 3 Pages

Using natural gas from fracking is a better and safer alternative than using coal because natural gas does not emit as much carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. The graphs presented on natfuel.com shows that the amount of carbon dioxide

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Fracking

951 Words | 4 Pages

Despite, the human’s constant concerns about the impact of fracking on the environment, human health and other issues, it has been one of the most important innovations for the economy in Northeastern Pennsylvania over the last century. “It’s almost impossible to overestimate the importance of fracking to the natural gas industry and the nation”. The importance of fracking on the economy in Northeastern Pennsylvania is similar to everywhere else in the United States. However, ever since the discovery of this technology, Northeastern Pennsylvania in particular has transformed completely.

Read More

Fracking Persuasive Speech

943 Words | 4 Pages

Researchers have “requested data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, all states heavily involved in the recent surge of oil and gas drilling, about complaints related to hydraulic fracking for oil and gas” for their research on fracking (Dechert).   The research collected was shocking, over 2,000 complaints in Texas alone and several cases on well water contamination within the states mentioned in Decherd’s article. People need to be alerted about how real fracking is and the damages it is doing. These complaints and cases should be a wakeup call to the world and say that we should put it to a

Read More

Fracking Argumentative Essay

792 Words | 4 Pages

For the citizens, “fracking will give them jobs so they can make money and support their families” (Rogowsky). Furthermore, with the addition of fracking “the United States can get about 1.8 trillion barrels of shale (“sedimentary rocks that have rich sources of petroleum and natural gas” (Rogowsky)) a year compared to Saudi

Read More

More about Marcellus Shale Drilling

Related Topics

Open Document