page_title: Shale gas in the United States
section_title: Shale gas production
hierarchical_section_title: Shale gas in the United States / Shale gas production
caption_attribution_description: English: US natural gas production, historical and projected, by type of gas reservoir.
context_page_description: Shale gas in the United States is an available source of 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 US natural gas. Largely due to shale gas discoveries, estimated reserves of natural gas in the United States in 2008 were 35% higher than in 2006.
  In 2007, shale gas fields included the #2 and #13 sources of natural gas in the United States in terms of gas volumes produced. The number of unconventional natural gas wells in the US rose from 18,485 in 2004 to 25,145 in 2007 and is expected to continue increasing until about 2040.
  The economic success of shale gas in the United States since 2000 has led to rapid development of shale gas in Canada, and, more recently, has spurred interest in shale gas possibilities in Europe, Asia, and Australia. It has been postulated that there may be a 100-year supply of natural gas in the United States, but only 11 years of gas supply is in the form of proved reserves.
context_section_description: US shale gas production has grown rapidly in recent years after a long-term effort by the natural gas industry in partnership with the Department of Energy to improve drilling and extraction methods while increasing exploration efforts. US shale production was 2.02 trillion cubic feet (57 billion cubic metres) in 2008, an increase of 71% over the previous year. In 2009, US shale gas production grew 54% to 3.11 trillion cubic feet (88 billion cubic metres), while remaining proven US shale reserves at year-end 2009 increased 76% to 60.6 trillion cubic feet (1.72 trillion cubic metres). In its Annual Energy Outlook for 2011, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) more than doubled its estimate of technically recoverable shale gas reserves in the US, to 827 trillion cubic feet (23.4 trillion cubic metres) from 353 trillion cubic feet (10.0 trillion cubic metres), by including data from drilling results in new shale fields, such as the Marcellus, Haynesville, and Eagle Ford shales. In 2012 the EIA lowered its estimates again to 482 tcf. Shale production is projected to increase from 23% of total US gas production in 2010 to 49% by 2035.
  The availability of large shale gas reserves in the US has led some to propose natural gas-fired power plants as lower-carbon emission replacements for coal plants, and as backup power sources for wind energy.
  In June 2011, a New York Times article reported that "not everyone in the Energy Information Administration agrees" with the optimistic projections of reserves, and questioned the impartiality of some of the reports issued by the agency. Two of the primary contractors, Intek and Advanced Resources International, which provided information for the reports also have major clients in the oil and gas industry. "The president of Advanced Resources, Vello A. Kuuskraa, is also a stockholder and board member of Southwestern Energy, an energy company heavily involved in drilling for gas" in the Fayetteville Shale, according to the report in The New York Times. The article was criticized by, among others, the New York Times own Public editor for lack of balance, in omitting facts and viewpoints favorable to shale gas production and economics. Other critics of the article included bloggers at Forbes and the Council on Foreign Relations. Also in 2011, Diane Rehm had Urbina; Seamus McGraw, writer and author of "The End of Country"; Tony Ingraffea, a professor of engineering at Cornell; and John Hanger, former secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; on a radio call-in show about Urbino's articles and the broader subject. The associations representing the natural gas industry, such as America's Natural Gas Alliance, were invited to be on the program but declined.
  In June 2011, when Urbino's New York Times article appeared, the latest figures for US proved reserves of shale gas were 97.4 trillion cubic feet, as of the end of 2010. Over the next three years 2011 through 2013, shale gas production totaled 28.3 trillion cubic feet, about 29% of the end-of-2010 proved reserves. But contrary to concerns of overstated reserves quoted in his article, both shale gas production and shale gas proved reserves have increased. US shale gas production in June 2011 was 21.6 billion cubic feet per day of dry gas. Since then, shale gas production has increased, and by March 2015 was 41.1 billion cubic feet per day, almost double the June 2011 rate, and provided 55% of total US dry natural gas production. Despite the rapidly increasing production, companies replaced their proved reserves much faster than production, so that by the end of 2013, companies reported that shale gas proved reserves still in the ground had grown to 159.1 TCF, an increase of 63% over the end of 2010 reserves.
  Advances in technology or experience can lead to greater productivity. The US Energy Information Administration has reported that drilling for shale gas and light tight oil in the United States became much more efficient throughout the period 2007–2014. In terms of oil produced per day of rig drilling time,
caption: Shale gas production has grown rapidly in recent years, and is projected by the US EIA to increase further.
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