Nov 9, 2024 By Rick Shrum 6 min read

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of stories reflecting on 20 years of gas drilling in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Renz No. 1 was enshrouded in doubt 20 years ago, when Range Resources was attempting to unleash natural gas from the well through hydraulic fracturing. Workers had drilled the site in Mount Pleasant Township in the 1940s with little success. Range fracked it in 2003 and got small, but increasing showings of gas over several days before that flow abruptly halted.

Renz was 0 for 2. Yet Range officials persevered, urged by company geologist Bill Zagorski to try again. The Southpointe-based firm returned to Mount Pleasant about a year later, in October 2004, enabling Renz to raise its batting average to .333.

Workers extracted an estimated 300,000 cubic feet of natural gas that first day, the largest fracking endeavor executed east of the Mississippi River at that time.

And – boom – the Marcellus Shale Revolution began. And it continues to boom across the United States and globally, providing an abundant, economical energy source that wasn’t as readily available a quarter-century ago.

“I think we’ve made natural gas one of the most important industries in America,” said Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT Corp. “You can make an argument that natural gas has become the nation’s most important industry over the past 20 years. Natural gas has transformed us from being energy dependent to being an energy powerhouse.

“We have more energy output (from oil and gas) than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. The benefits can be seen, along with the penalties other regions of the world are paying for staying energy dependent. Look at Europe and see what this resource can save America from.”

Marcellus is the second-largest natural gas field in the world, stretching 31,000 square miles from southern New York state to northern Kentucky, and west from the Catskills to Ohio. Much of it is in Pennsylvania, which has become a haven for gas exploration and production companies.

An estimated 75% of natural gas extracted across the state either is transported via pipeline to other states, or sent to other nations as liquefied natural gas.

The southwestern corner of the commonwealth – especially Washington, Greene and Fayette counties – is a popular destination for natural gas operators. About 15% of natural gas that is produced in Pennsylvania comes from Washington County.

Rice and his company are bullish on the industry, to be sure. EQT, headquartered in downtown Pittsburgh, is the largest natural gas producer in North America. The company gained that stature after acquiring Southpointe-based Rice Energy in 2017, nearly a decade after he and his brothers, Daniel III and Derek, had launched that firm.

But Toby Rice is far from alone among oil and gas officials, who envision more prosperity for their industry and for consumers.

“I think the industry has a very strong future,” said Dave Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which works with exploration and production companies, midstream and supply chain partners in the Appalachian Basin and elsewhere across the nation.

“The Marcellus and Utica Shale (formations) are among the biggest, if not the biggest, gas fields, which provide an Incredibly abundant clean energy resource that provides consumer savings and jobs while the industry is lowering emissions. Roughly 59% of electrical power comes from natural gas.”

Natural gas is considered to be clean burning compared with other fossil fuels, but is subject to emissions at a time climate concerns are paramount. These emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “primarily refer to the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which can occur during the extraction, transportation and distribution of natural gas.”

“Significant” leaks, EIA said, may occur “at various points in the supply chain, impacting its environmental footprint despite emitting less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels when burned.”

Two sustainable energies – solar and wind – recently bypassed natural gas in usage on the U.S. energy grid and are gaining momentum with consumers.

The oil and gas industry maintains it is striving to cut emissions, and funding is being devoted to do so. In July, Pennsylvania received $396 million in federal funds to assist firms in reducing carbon emissions. And on Monday, Canadian officials announced that gas producers must reduce greenhouse emissions by about 33% over the next eight years.

“The Appalachian Basin is the cleanest basin in the United States, and one of cleanest in the world,” Callahan said. “Air pollution emissions and CO2 emissions have dropped dramatically.”

Now that it is more easily sourced, natural gas is a seemingly inexhaustible energy source. Following the successful drilling of Renz Well, Terry Engelder, a geologist and professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, estimated that 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be recovered from the Marcellus. That amount, he said, was the equivalent to what the entire country used in about 2 1/2 years then.

He later revised that estimate upward to 489 trillion cubic feet, or enough for 20 years in the U.S.

“We have a massive amount of energy,” Rice said. “Over 30 million barrels of oil equivalent a day are being produced in the United States. About 60% is natural gas, the rest is oil. The question is, will this amount of energy be enough? Look at the world. We have rampant inflation, civil unrest and global emissions are skyrocketing. We need to do more.”

Rice and Callahan are not enamored of the pause the Biden-Harris administration imposed on reviewing permits for liquified natural gas (LNG) exports.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been in the midst of a permit freeze since Jan. 24 by the Biden administration,” Callahan said. “Our allies and trading partners rely on clean, reliable natural gas.”

Rice said: “We’re now dealing with an LNG export stoppage, which makes it difficult to do our jobs. We need to elect leaders that want reliable, clean energy.”

A court case overturned the LNG pause during the summer, but no new LNG projects have been announced. The U.S., through previous project approvals, remains the world’s top LNG exporter.

Not everyone is a natural gas fan. The industry more recently has been facing challenges from property owners seeking lengthier setbacks between homes and buildings and gas operations, related to potential health concerns.

More than a decade ago, when fracking gained momentum in this region, local residents lamented the heavy truck traffic on their roadways, noise pollution and dust. Starting in 2012, local governments have been financially reimbursed for damages through the Act 13 impact fee, which many municipal officials have touted for enabling them to pay for infrastructure and other town projects.

Natural gas isn’t perfect, but it is plentiful, cost-effective and available.