The tale of one gas well in Pennsylvania offers a big window into why a natural gas supply glut exists and prices are about $3.30 for a thousand cubic feet.
Just one gas well in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania produced enough gas to supply fully for a year 51,724 residential customers of the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). To make Cabot's A. Heitzenroder 3 gas well's production even more amazing, the gas well did so in just 6 months!
Cabot's A. Heitzenroder 3 gas well is Pennsylvania's top producing gas well, and it yielded an incredible 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas in just 6 months--July 1 to December 31, 2012. Indeed, a true gusher!
http://articles.mcall.com/2013-02-22/news/mc-pa-marcellus-gas-production-20130222_1_unconventional-wells-shale-gas-production-natural-gas.
Six months of production yielding 4.5 billion cubic feet supplies 51,724 homes for a year when each home consumes on average 87,000 cubic feet per year. And the average PGW residential heating customer annually uses 87,000 cubic feet of gas to stay warm in Philadelphia.
Another way to look at the amazing production from Pennsylvania's top producing gas well is that it alone supplies in just 6 months the annual gas needs of about 1 of every 9 gas heating homes in Philadelphia. Wow!
Former DEP director and candidate for Gov on the Democratic Party ticket John Hanger says in his blog that the Marcellus Gas Play production is no Ponzi Scheme.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.johnhanger.blogspot.com/2013/02/stunning-fact-pas-top-producing-gas.html
We all need to question this finding on gas play production in the Marcellus Shale. No one is asking or studying the following questions:
1. Where will of the waste water and drill cuttings be stored and how much will that cost and who will pay for that?
2. What will it cost and who will pay for restoring the drill pad sites after the wells are spent, especially in State Forrests and State Parks?
3. Who is going to pay for the inspecting during and after a well is drilled and spent? How much will that cost?
4. Drill Casings only last between 25 -100 years. Who is going to inspect, replace and pay for those replacement casings? Can that be done?
5. Who is monitoring and going to pay for the ill health effects from fracking of drill rig workers, residents and animals of the shale play areas?
6. What is it going to cost to remediate the effects of global climate change from all of that carbon dioxide and escaped methane into the environment?
7. What about the exposure of radioactive radon in the shale gas after it is piped to consumers? No one is studying that. If houses have to have radon remediation, what is all of the shale gas radon going to do to people's health?
8. Who is going to pay for replacement water from all of the water contamination in shale play areas, from accidents, leaks and transporting of drill wastes?
9. If the price of the gas is so cheap and the purpose of extracting the gas is to make us "energy independent" and the necessity of using it as a "transition fuel" until we develop renewable energy resources, why are we seeing requests to build or convert 19 ocean port terminals for the liquification of natural gas for shipping overseas? How is that making us energy indepedent with cheap energy? Won't the price of gas go up with these exports?
10.With the request for more drilling and permits, and cuts in the PA DEP budget how can we be assured that the drillers are drilling safely and the wells are adequately inspected?
11.With more drilling comes the need for more pipelines and pumping stations. We have already seen leaks, fires and explosions. Now companies like Texas Pipeline are jumping the gun and starting to clear cut forrest lands even before they obtain permits and complete environmental impact studies. We are asked to trust the drillers and pipeline constructors and operators to do the right thing for the environment, our health and safety of workers and residents along their routes. How can this happen when they are just going ahead before having the proper permits and compliance from environmental regulations and DRBC oversight?
12. Who is inspecting these pipelines and pumping stations, both the old and news ones being built? How do we know that they won't leak, catch fire and explode?
Fracking is too dangerous, too expensive and totally unecessary for our energy needs. Leave the gas in the ground. We have alternatives, but they are not as profitable for the oil, gas, coal and centralized electric power utiliites and they are not sustainable.
Paui
Thats a lot of reading! Only, to read your last statement,....coal is dirty electricity...We know this..bad for the air and water...oil, bad for the air and water...gas is better than both but, still is in a much smaller way not the best way (currently) to clean energy.But,it is in the right direction. And remember no energy is sustainable.
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