PA Drilling For Marcellus Gas To Continue Until 2070

When will the last Marcellus Shale well be drilled in Pennsylvania? And will any Pennsylvanian living today live to see the last Marcellus well plugged?

The folks at www.marcellusgas.org calculate in 2070 or another 68 years, as when the last Marcellus well will be drilled.  The 68 years calculation assumes gas beneath 13 million acres in 37 counties will be produced and a permit issuance rate of 3,000 per year.

When will the last Marcellus well in PA stop producing gas? Evidence is mounting that many wells will produce for decades, even 70 years is not out of the question, depending on the impossible to predict economics of energy and gas pricing in the distant future.

Consequently it is possible that Marcellus gas may be still be producing in 2140 and probably more than 100 years from now.  Very few if any Pennsylvanians living today will live to see the last Marcellus gas well plugged.

If one dates the start of Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania to 2005, we are currently still in the early childhood of this play.  MarcellusGas.Org estimates that just 4% of the extraction area has been developed to date.

It also reports that Pennsylvania crossed the 5-figure milestone for shale drilling permits issued in May, with 10,033 permits issued by the first week of this month.  Of that total, more than 5,700 wells have been drilled or are being developed.