After years of incentives, tireless work, political pressure, and labor concessions, what is bringing heavy steel manufacturing back to the Valley is a layer of rock deep beneath our feet.
It’s called the Marcellus Shale, named after the town of Marcellus, New York, where there is an exposed outcropping.
According to oil and gas industry sources, the layer of shale extends under New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. In places it measures 900 feet thick.
The Marcellus Shale layer is porous with pockets of gas trapped within the formation. Overlying layers form an impervious cap which traps the gas inside the shale. Estimates of the amount of natural gas in the Marcellus formation range up to 50 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. The U.S. annually consumes about 30 trillion cubic feet.
The value of 50 trillion cubic feet of gas is estimated at one trillion dollars.
Shale consists of a mixture of minerals and organic material deposited hundreds of millions of years ago, often initially at the bottom of ancient seas. When subjected to pressure from overlying layers, and heat from within the earth, it can form liquid oil or natural gas depending on the extent of each.
In the Marcellus formation, high heating has tended to form mostly natural gas deposits.
Steadily rising prices of natural gas, both in the present and projected in the future, are launching a gold rush of sorts, with energy speculators willing to invest millions in creating the capability to tap into this vast reservoir of energy.
This is creating the demand for high-quality steel pipe used to punch through the shale and into the gas deposits that is enticing V&M and TMK IPSCO to build or expand facilities here.
To get to the gas, drillers increasingly use a new technique called horizontal drilling. The well is first drilled vertically then turned horizontal in the shale zone. High pressure water mixed with a proprietary mix of chemicals and sand is blasted at the shale to cause fracturing, known in the industry as hydrofrac. The fracturing releases the gas for recovery into the drilling pipe. The fracturing water is pumped back out, stored, or treated.
This drilling technique is both expensive and possibly environmentally hazardous. The contaminated water used in hydrofrac is suspected of causing cancer and other health issues when it contaminates groundwater. In New York, an effort is underway to prohibit hydrofrac within the New York City watershed. Other regions are eying similar bans.
A study done by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection reached this conclusion; “Introduction of hundreds of tons per day of fracturing chemicals into the watershed over a period of several decades will likely be accompanied by the gradual dispersion of low levels of toxic chemicals into the environment and potentially the [New York City] water supply via multiple transport pathways.”
In Pennsylvania, limits have been placed in at least one sanitary district to prevent drillers from dumping too much fracturing waste into the community wastewater treatment plants. Reports were that the plants were overwhelmed and do not have the capability to deal with the complex chemistry of the hydrofrac fluid. As a result, incompletely treated water was discovered in streams and rivers.
Another impediment to widespread shale drilling is the heavy truck traffic on often insufficient rural roads. Each drill site requires a large footprint of heavy machinery, as well as large quantities of water for the hydrofrac. The wear and tear on existing infrastructure causes road damage, erosion, and environmental degradation.
These concerns by water resource managers and environmental agencies have resulted in a slow permitting process in many areas for would-be drillers.
But the potential payoff in shale drilling is too great to pass up, and investment continues to pour into the drilling industry. The insatiable demand for home-grown energy makes investors confident that all obstacles can be overcome.
The Mahoning Valley seems well situated to take full advantage of an economic revitalizing seed planted nearly 400 million years ago.
To learn more about the Marcellus Shale, and the challenges in safe recovery, click
here.
