Additional Plays: Drillers Testing Other Shale Formations Above and
Below the Marcellus Strata
Washington PA Observer Reporter
7 June 2010
By Michael Bradwell, Business editor
mbradwell@observer-reporter.com
Pennsylvania's geology has the potential of delivering natural gas from
a variety of shale formations beyond the Marcellus strata, a geologist
said last week.
But Dr. Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Penn State, who has
spent 30 years studying the Marcellus, said the "super giant" shale
formation is in no danger of losing its position as one of the world's
largest gas fields.
"It's not just the Marcellus," Engelder acknowledged when asked about
recent announcements by two drilling companies working in Pennsylvania
that test wells have been completed in two other shale formations which
lie above and below the Marcellus strata.
Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the company has drilled
some test wells into the "Rhinestreet" formation, which is part of the
Upper Devonian shale that sits about 1,000 feet above the Marcellus
strata. The company has also tested the depths below the Marcellus
where the Utica formation lies.
"The tests were encouraging enough that they could be stand-alone shale
plays in their own right," he said.
In Northeastern Pennsylvania, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. told analysts
last year it had drilled a successful horizontal well through the
Purcell Limestone sandwiched between two layers of its Marcellus
acreage.
Engelder noted that all of the shale formations can yield gas. He added
that while reports of test wells in the other strata are just now
emerging in Pennsylvania, some of them have been drilled in other parts
of the country for some time.
He said Pittsburgh-based EQT has been drilling in Upper Devonian shale
in Kentucky's Big Sandy play for some time.
The emergence of the other shale formations in Pennsylvania are so new,
that no one yet knows their impact on the gas exploration industry or
their economic impact.
"It's just really early now," Pitzarella said. "No one's really given
much detail in terms of production data."
When the authors of a Penn State study detailing the projected economic
impacts of the Marcellus Shale gas play released an update two weeks
ago, they noted that their report did not consider development of other
shale formations that exist above and beneath the Marcellus.
There are also some regulatory factors that could affect the future
extraction of gas from shale.
Drillers face the increased scrutiny from the Environmental Protection
Agency, which is studying the effects of water pollution used in
hydraulic fracturing used to release the gas from the tight shale
formations. There are also several legislative proposals in Harrisburg
to enact a severance tax on gas extracted from the Marcellus shale.
Both Engelder and Pitzarella said the other shale formations could be
places that drillers could return to after the Marcellus acreage is
more fully developed.
Despite the promise of gas yields from the other formations, Pitzarella
said Range still views the Marcellus as its primary goal.
"The Marcellus is the best of the best" formations, he said.