Daily Headlines, Resources and Insights From Our Shale & Fracking Practice

The Monterey shale play is found mostly in southern California, including areas surrounding Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Bakersfield.

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Colorado has a long history of oil and gas development and is home to several major oil and gas basins, including the Denver & Julesburg, Raton, San Juan and Piceance Basins, and the Niobrara, Pierre and Hillard-Baxter-Mancos shale plays. Recently, the United States Geological Survey revised its estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable shale gas in the Mancos shale play within the Piceance Basin upward to 66.3 trillion cubic feet. Some industry representatives maintain that even this estimate understates the resource’s potential.

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Illinois contains the largely untapped New Albany Shale, an approximately 60,000-square mile shale formation located partially in Southeastern Illinois within the Illinois Basin.

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Nevada is home to the Chainman Shale formation, which sits primarily in the eastern central region of Nevada within the Big Sand Spring Valley. The formation contains both oil and gas and covers about 20 million acres.

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Although the Marcellus and Utica shale plays at the center of the shale gas development boom extend well into New York, and the State maintains an established regulatory program for oil and gas exploration and production operations, hydraulic fracturing had been the subject of a de facto moratorium in New York since 2008.

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In North Carolina, assessment of potential shale gas resources is ongoing. The United States Geological Survey believes that there may be commercially viable reserves in portions of the Deep River Basin and the Dan River Basin.

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North Dakota is America’s second-largest oil producing state due to the rich Bakken and Three Forks Formations. North Dakota natural gas production hit a record high in March 2018 when the state produced more than 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

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Oklahoma contains extensive natural gas reserves across its Anadarko, Arkoma, and Ardmore basins. The Woodford Shale, the state’s largest shale formation, straddles the Ardmore Basin and the Arkoma Basin. In 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that the Woodford Shale contained up to 22.2 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas.

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The Utica shale play covers central, northeastern, and eastern Ohio, including the cities of Columbus and Cleveland; the Marcellus shale play covers Ohio’s eastern border and extends into West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.

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In 1859, “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake struck oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, an event that launched America’s oil and gas industry.

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Texas is home to one of the most established natural gas shale plays, the Barnett Shale, as well as the Eagle Ford and Haynesville/Bossier shale plays.

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West Virginia lies over the Marcellus Shale formation, and the far western edge of the state also lies over the Devonian Shale formation. The Utica Shale formation lies below the Marcellus formation and is just beginning to be developed in West Virginia.

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Wyoming’s natural gas production primarily occurs in the conventional and tight gas sand reservoirs in the Greater Green River Basin and the unconventional (coal bed natural gas) reservoirs in the Powder River Basin.

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Argentina is the largest producer of natural gas in South America.

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China has seven prospective shale gas basins: the Sichuan, Tarim, Junggar, Songliao, Yangtze Platform, Jianghan, and Subei.

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The Scandinavian Alum Shale underlies large portions of Sweden, Denmark, and potentially Norway. However, a majority of the Alum Shale is “shallow, thin, and immature.”

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According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (“EPRS”), France has the second largest shale reserves in Europe after Poland.

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In 2013, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) posited that Germany holds technically recoverable shale gas reserves of 481 billion cubic meters (17 trillion cubic feet (Tcf)). A more recent study, completed by geologists at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, estimated that Germany’s shale oil resources are around 13 million to 164 million tonnes, and that 0.32 trillion and 2.03 trillion cubic metres (cbm) of gas could be extracted in depths below 1,000 meters in northern Germany.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates India has approximately 96 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources and 584 tcf of risked shale gas in place.

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According to a 2013 Energy Information Administration (EIA) assessment, Mexico has technically recoverable shale resources estimated at 545 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, and 13.1 billion barrels of oil and condensate, stored in marine-deposited, source-rock shales distributed along the onshore Gulf of Mexico region.

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The Netherlands has approximately 26 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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In 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated Norway’s technically recoverable shale gas reserves to be approximately 83 trillion cubic feet (tcf). However, by 2013, EIA’s estimate had decreased from 83 tcf to zero due to results obtained from three wells drilled in the Alum Shale by Shell Oil Company in 2011.

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Poland is currently a large net importer of natural gas. In recent years, over 70% of natural gas consumed in Poland was imported, approximately two thirds of which was supplied by Russia. After a plateau in production from 2004 to 2007, the country’s natural gas production has again begun to decline.

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According to a June 2013 report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (“USEIA”), South Africa has 390 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources.

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The Scandinavian Alum Shale underlies large portions of Sweden, Denmark, and potentially Norway.

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Ukraine has an estimated 42 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), ranking its deposits as the fourth largest in Europe behind Poland (187 tcf), France (180 tcf) and Norway (83 tcf).

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Multiple studies indicate that the UK’s shale basins contain substantial volumes of recoverable reserves. For example, a report published in 2012 by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) observed that, by analogy with comparable shale gas plays in America, the UK’s recoverable shale reserves could be as large as 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) (or 5.3 trillion cubic feet (tcf)).

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