Natural gas, including unconventional shale gas resources, fuels our economy, delivers heat and power to over 60 million U.S. homes and provides our nation with a clean-burning, domestic energy source. According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study released in June 2010, natural gas is expected to double its share of the energy market, from 20 percent to 40 percent by 2050, making the development of this vital resource increasingly important to our nation’s future energy.
Natural gas is essential to America's manufacturers, not only to power their operations, but also as a feedstock for many of the daily products we use—clothing, carpets, sports equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, computers, and auto parts. It is also a primary feedstock for chemicals, plastics and fertilizers.
Over the past few years, the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have unlocked the promise of natural gas in tight rock formations—sandstone in the intermountain West and shale throughout the central and eastern U.S.—and have led to a natural gas boom in several areas of the country.
Improvements in technology and application of science have contributed to an 8 percent increase in U.S. natural gas production between 2007 and 2008, through development of tight shales and sandstones which, not all that long ago, were considered impractical or uneconomical to pursue.
Among the first targets was the Barnett shale deposit in northern Texas. As a result of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the Barnett Shale now produces over 7 percent of America’s natural gas, enough to power 20 million homes per year. Operators are able to drill underneath Fort Worth from miles outside the city limits with directional drilling.
Success in the Barnett after years of drilling led to the application of lessons in technology and science that shortened the learning curve for development of emerging plays like the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and the Marcellus Shale in the northeastern United States. A recent EIA report noted that U.S. proven natural gas reserves rose 3 percent in 2008, and shale gas reserves rose an astonishing 51 percent over 2007.
New resources have helped to increase natural gas supplies and improve U.S. energy security. They have also encouraged discussions about America's abundant natural gas as a clean, bridge fuel to the nation's energy future.
Natural gas has many uses:
- Meets 24 percent of U.S. energy requirements.
- Heats 51 percent of U.S. households.
- Cools homes and provides fuel for cooking.
- Provides the energy source or raw material to make a wide range of products, such as plastics, steel, glass, synthetic fabrics, fertilizer, aspirin, automobiles and processed food.
Natural gas demand is growing:
- Americans used 23.2 trillion cubic feet of it in 2008.
- Natural gas supplies about 64.9 million residential customers and 5.5 million commercial and industrial customers in 2007.
- It powers nearly 120,000 vehicles operating on American roads.
Supply:
- At the end of 2008, U.S. natural gas reserves stood at 244.7 trillion cubic feet—the highest level in over 30 years.
- The United States produced 20.6 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas in 2008—about 88 percent of U.S. consumption.
- Most natural gas used in the United States comes from North America.