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US shale gas basins, 2011. Shale gas in the United States is an available source of unconventional natural gas.Led by new applications of hydraulic fracturing technology and horizontal drilling, development of new sources of shale gas has offset declines in production from conventional gas reservoirs, and has led to major increases in reserves of U.S. natural gas.
At 301 billion metric tons, as estimated in 2005, the oil shale deposits in the United States are the largest in the world. There are two major deposits: the eastern US deposits, in Devonian-Mississippian shales , cover 250,000 square miles (650,000 km 2 ); the western US deposits of the Green River Formation in Colorado , Wyoming , and Utah ...
The United States has the largest known deposits of oil shale in the world, according to the Bureau of Land Management and holds an estimated 2.175 trillion barrels (345.8 km 3) of potentially recoverable oil. [21] Oil shale does not actually contain oil, but a waxy oil precursor known as kerogen.
A recent academic paper on the economic impacts of shale gas development in the US finds that natural gas prices have dropped dramatically in places with shale deposits with active exploration. Natural gas for industrial use has become cheaper by around 30% compared to the rest of the US. [ 115 ]
In 1996, shale gas wells in the United States produced 0.3 × 10 ^ 12 cu ft (8.5 km 3), 1.6% of US gas production; by 2006, production had more than tripled to 1.1 × 10 ^ 12 cu ft (31 km 3) per year, 5.9% of US gas production. By 2005, there were 14,990 shale gas wells in the US. [20] A record 4,185 shale gas wells were completed in the US in ...
The history of the oil shale industry in the United States goes back to the 1850s; it dates back farther as a major enterprise than the petroleum industry. But although the United States contains the world's largest known resource of oil shale, the US has not been a significant producer of shale oil since 1861.
A 2016 estimate set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent to yield of 6.05 trillion barrels (962 billion cubic metres) of shale oil, with the largest resource deposits in the United States accounting more than 80% of the world total resource. [6]
The United States has two significant oil shale deposits which are suited for commercial development due to their size, grade and location. The Eocene Green River Formation covers parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah; the second significant deposit is Devonian oil shales in the eastern United States. In both places, there are sub-basins varying ...