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Shale Gas
Natural gas is an efficient energy source and the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. Natural gas extracted from dense shale rock formations has become the fastest-growing source of gas in the United States and could become a significant new global energy source. Although the energy industry has long known about huge gas resources trapped in shale rock formations in the United States, it is over the past decade that energy companies have combined two established technologies—hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling—to successfully unlock this resource.
Chevron holds 700,000 net acres of leases in the Marcellus Shale, making us one of the largest leaseholders in Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates the United States possesses 2,543 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas resources, of which 33 percent is held in shale rock formations. Natural gas from shale has grown to 25 percent of U.S. gas production in just a decade and will be 50 percent by 2035, according to the EIA. Developing this resource can help enhance energy security and strengthen economies.
What Chevron Is Doing
Chevron is involved in every phase of natural gas development. We are leasing land and exploring for natural gas. We are conducting pilot projects to test technologies and evaluate gas shales for future projects. We are drilling and completing new wells. And we are producing, processing and distributing natural gas from shale rock.
Chevron produces natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, which underlies a large area of the eastern United States, and the company is drilling to substantially increase production there. In addition, we successfully tested gas wells in the Haynesville Shale in east Texas and are working on additional prospects in this area. Chevron also is evaluating large blocks of new leases in Canada and Eastern Europe.
United States
With the acquisition of Atlas Energy in 2011, Chevron became a U.S. producer of natural gas from shale rock. Chevron is one of the largest leaseholders in Pennsylvania, with more than 700,000 net acres of leases in the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus is one of North America's largest and richest shale gas resources. It runs beneath large swathes of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio and dips into neighboring states. The leases add 850 billion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves to Chevron's portfolio and 14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources—enough to supply 100 percent of U.S. natural gas needs for about seven months.
Chevron plans a robust drilling program to grow its Marcellus production. In addition to the Marcellus opportunity, the Atlas acquisition gave Chevron a strong position in more than 600,000 net acres of the Utica Shale. This vast, undeveloped formation lies beneath the Marcellus.
We also are evaluating prospects in about 380,000 net acres of the Antrim Shale and other gas shales in Michigan that were included in the Atlas deal.
In 2010, Chevron completed a pilot drilling program in the Haynesville Shale that identified 2 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable natural gas. Chevron plans a second Texas pilot to evaluate another part of this formation. Chevron holds more than 70,000 net acres in the Haynesville beneath mature conventional oil and gas fields. To further evaluate the Haynesville and other rock layers in the area, Chevron is participating with other companies in a large 3-D seismic survey, with results expected in 2012.
Canada
Chevron acquired about 200,000 net acres in western Alberta's Duvernay Shale in 2010 and has developed a three-year exploration program to evaluate the gas resource. Using seismic and well data from the area's long history of oil and gas production, Chevron expects to begin exploration drilling by the second half of 2011.
Eastern Europe
In 2010 and 2011, Chevron acquired more than 4 million acres in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria to explore and evaluate gas shales.
Responsible Gas Development
Chevron is committed to responsible natural gas development from shale rock. Keeping people safe and protecting the environment are core values. Wherever we operate, we work closely with local governments, respect our neighbors and invest in the community.
How Chevron Operates
Protecting land, water and communities is our highest priority. We share the public's expectation that the energy we need will be produced safely and reliably. We know that permission to operate depends on our ability to do business responsibly.
Ensuring Safe Natural Gas Development
Hydraulic fracturing of energy-bearing rock—an important technology for shale gas development—has been used safely around the world by Chevron and other companies for more than 60 years, in more than 1.1 million wells. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting water under high pressure to crack the shale rock and free the trapped natural gas.
Chevron takes steps to protect groundwater during hydraulic fracturing and over the life of the well. For example, our wells in Pennsylvania have as many as eight layers of steel casing and cement, which forms a continuous barrier between the well and the surrounding formations. We run pressure tests to ensure the well's integrity. We also conduct a combination of tests over the life of the well to verify long-term integrity. Our wells are designed to protect groundwater for the life of the well.
Because fracturing is done thousands of feet beneath the groundwater aquifer, the potential for cracks to leak gas or fracturing fluids into groundwater is extremely low. For example, seismic surveys of shale gas wells in the eastern United States show that fractures are separated from groundwater by more than a mile of rock—a distance as deep as the Grand Canyon.
Responsible Water Management
Chevron is committed to protecting surface water during shale gas development by safely and responsibly managing fracturing fluids, wastewater and produced water. A mixture of water and sand makes up more than 99 percent of fracturing fluid, with chemical components accounting for the remaining 1 percent. A portion of the water used during fracturing flows back to the surface along with the natural gas being produced. The water is stored temporarily in lined pits until it is either reused in future fracturing jobs or injected into disposal wells permitted and regulated for that purpose. Well sites are designed to protect the land surface, and we take care to restore the land to its original contours after drilling.
In Pennsylvania, Chevron is working to capture and reuse 100 percent of the fracturing flowback fluids and water produced with the natural gas. This reduces our freshwater consumption as well as our need for water trucking, transfer and disposal. We also use water pipelines to lessen the need for tanker trucks often used for water transport.
Enhanced Transparency
Chevron supports giving the public access to information related to chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. For more information on fracturing, visit FracFocus.org. This online registry of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing is a joint project of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
Updated: October 2011
