Up-and-coming shale plays
Monday, September 15, 2014
A lot of media attention has been given to the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Utica shale plays, but several other midwestern and southern plays have potential, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
The New Albany shale is located in parts of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. So far, this shale has been successful with vertical drilling instead of fracking.
Another play, the Antrium, is primarily found in Michigan, but also is in Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario, Canada. Though fracking isn’t used now, it probably will be in the future by oil and gas companies that are planning to begin drilling.
Arkansas’s Arkhoma basin, which houses the Fayetteville Shale, stretches into Oklahoma. By the end of 2013, the play had 4,100 producing wells.
The last of the shale plays is the Woodford shale in Oklahoma. Natural gas has been produced in the play since the 1930s, but a horizontal natural gas well has been tested more recently.
Via: The Bismarck Tribune > Four Bakken-like plays emerging across the nation’s midsection
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Shale FAQ
What is fracking?
Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracturing is a process by which highly pressurized fluid is pumped thousands of feet into the ground to fracture rock formations. The goal is to release the natural gas that’s locked inside the rock.
Is it safe?
What most concerns people about fracturing is ground water contamination. The worry is that fractures underground, caused by the process, will extending upwards and into aquifers, releasing gas and chemicals into the ground water supply. There’s been no confirmed reports of such a thing happening. Though surface spills and drill site blowouts can lead to localized environmental concerns.
Will my water catch on fire?
Flammable water is caused by the release of methane gas into a drinking water supply. Methane gas occurs naturally and can be released by any kind of drilling, including water wells. In Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy $1 million for contaminating ground water with methane. It was determined that the company had not properly cemented it’s boreholes and gas migrated up the well, between rock and into aquifers.