Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
7
There is now a great deal of research and assessment being done on hydrofracking
by government agencies, the industry, academics, inventors, and environmentalists,
and the fruits of their labors will be revealed in the next few years.
While the politics and economics of fracking remain volatile, there appears to
be a greater willingness to compromise on either side of the debate. In the mean-
time, scientists are gathering new data: the EPA will issue the preliminary results
of its nationwide study in 2014, and impose new regulations limiting air pollution
caused by hydrofracking in 2015. The industry has entered a new dynamic phase,
and is maturing on almost every level.
The answer to this seemingly simple question is a moving target. In 2011 the EIA
estimated that the nation had 827 trillion cubic feet of shale gas; a few months later,
the agency sharply reduced the estimate to 482 trillion cubic feet. As of this writ-
ing in 2013, the EIA estimates the United States has roughly 665 trillion cubic feet
of technically recoverable shale gas (fourth globally, behind China, Argentina, and
Algeria).
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The US Geological Survey (USGS), meanwhile, revised its estimates of shale
oil in the Bakken and Three Forks formations—which lie beneath Montana, North
Dakota and South Dakota—upward, to 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered
oil—double the previous estimate—and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of gas, triple the pre-
vious estimate. The EIA adds that the United States now has an estimated 48 billion
barrels of shale oil reserves (second worldwide, after Russia's 58 billion barrels).
