A couple of positive news items from shale energy country. In Pennsylvania, data from the Energy Information Administration confirms that drillers are doing more with less. In Texas, shale’s benefits are extending beyond the drilling pads in the Eagle Ford play.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that advances in horizontal drilling in the Marcellus Shale play have dramatically increased natural gas production using fewer wells:

“Even as the amount of natural gas produced in the Keystone State quadrupled between 2009 and 2011, the number of actual wells fell as drillers used new technology to extract more gas from a single rig. … The development of more efficient horizontal drilling technology severely slowed the number of vertical wells drilled between 2009 and 2011, a period that... more »

Here’s an interesting video set from the folks at Energy In Depth, showing how natural gas development in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale play has lifted the lives of three women and their families. Take a look:

The point underscored throughout: Real people, real lives, real economic empowerment. Three women and three families – their lives made better with the energy-from-shale revolution that has come to Pennsylvania, paying more than $1.8 billion in lease and bonus payments to landowners in 2008 alone and which now employs more than 229,000, almost 2 percent of the commonwealth’s population.

For more information, visit Energy From Shale.

Shale oil and natural gas development in the United States has been a clear economic success story during a time when successes have been few.  Our industry has been producing energy, jobs and revenue at a strong clip.  And yet we’ve only begun to realize the benefits of energy from shale.  

The industry is committed to producing this energy safely and responsibly, and in addition to strong industry standards, there are appropriate federal and state regulations in place for oil and natural gas operations, including those that employ hydraulic fracturing.  And many state rules have recently been strengthened. 

So it is a concern that there are now 10 separate federal government agencies looking to study and potentially add new and unnecessary layers of regulations on hydraulic fractur... more »

Two good links for facts on hydraulic fracturing, the process for producing natural gas and oil from shale that is turning the energy conversation in this country on its head: Here, Syracuse University earth sciences Prof. Donald Siegel discusses concerns about fracking and water supply safety on Canada's CBC News/New Brunswick website. Over here, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce has posted an issues brief that addresses misnomers specific to that state's Marcellus Shale play.

Siegel writes that while water supplies need to be protected from flawed drilling operations and accidents, alarm from some opponents of natural gas and/or hydraulic fracturing is overdone:

"The public in New Brunswick should not fear that their water supplies and their air quality will be compromised because of... more »

Don't know if Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley was a math major, but he's promoting an equation that certainly adds up: E = J.

"Energy equals jobs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Cawley told a recent gathering of Bucks County business owners and students. Pennsylvania is having an energy/jobs revolution right now with natural gas development from the Marcellus shale play. Gas drilling supports 300,000 jobs in the state with an average annual wage of $74,000, Cawley said. More jobs are forecast, with Penn State researchers saying 212,000 additional positions will be generated by Marcellus activity.

The effects of the Pennsylvania equation aren't even limited to Pennsylvania. The southern tier of neighboring New York, where companies are reacting to demand next door, is getting a boost... more »