The Wall Street Journal is reporting that U.S. natural-gas production will continue to accelerate through 2040 with subsequent declines occurring slowly. Based on detailed research in and around North Texas’s Barnett Shale, the study concludes that 44 trillion cubic feet of natural gas will be recovered in the Barnett — more than three times what has been produced so far and about two years’ worth of U.S. consumption at current rates.
“We are looking at multi, multi decades of growth,” said Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas and a leader of the study.
The University of Texas is also examining shale formations in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Arkansas. This additional research has caused investigators to conclude that U.S. natural gas production won’t plateau until 2040.
According to the Journal, the study itself is considered landmark research in the field of U.S. energy resources because it looks at data from actual wells rather than relying on estimates.
The study, funded by the nonpartisan Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and performed by the University of Texas, examined 15,000 wells drilled in the Barnett Shale formation in northern Texas, mostly over the past decade. It is among the first to study the geology and economics of shale drilling, a relatively recent development made possible by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is pumped at high pressure into rocks to release gas.
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