In the Farmland, an Energy Rush

Rural Gas Rush
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
In what is becoming an increasingly common scene in southwestern Pennsylvania, a farm is surrounded by gas tanks and access roads.
The region is in the midst of what is now known to be one of the largest reservoirs of natural gas in the world—some estimate that it's second only to the giant Pars field in the Persian Gulf. The prospect of abundant, cheap natural gas in the United States—especially gas that’s easily delivered by pipeline to large population centers on the East Coast—has lured billions of dollars in development money from around the world.
Read article: "Natural Gas Stirs Hope and Fear in Pennsylvania"
Published October 22, 2010
Galloping Ahead
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Nearly 70 energy companies are prospecting for natural gas in the Marcellus shale in rural Pennsylvania, with plans for drilling 3,500 wells annually within the decade.
It's a huge amount of industrial activity in a state that hasn’t seen this kind of development in decades, right near homes and schools, in the midst of rural farmland, and close to treasured parks and forests. Pennsylvanians generations past the heyday of the state’s big coal and coal-fired steel industries still recall the havoc that the energy industry can wreak on the environment—and the state has the abandoned coal waste piles and impaired streams to show for it. The state is divided between those who welcome the new economic engine and those who worry about what is ahead.
Published October 22, 2010
Happy Days
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Dayna, Ryan, and Steven Spence relax with the family dogs as marchers pass by in the 2010 Memorial Day parade in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh.
For the region's residents, particularly its young, natural gas development in the region presents economic opportunity. Marcellus shale drillers say they can bring 200,000 jobs to a state that has struggled to revive its industrial sector. In the past two years, they have made $3.5 billion in lease and royalty payments to landowners for the right to drill on private property.
Published October 22, 2010
Enjoying the Ride
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Members of the Chartiers-Houston High School marching band cool off as they ride the bus home after performing in the Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Memorial Day Parade last May.
Life goes on as usual for residents of the region while the natural gas industry booms around them. At first glance, the farms and pastures seem untouched by the development. But chemical tank trucks, sand haulers, flatbeds stacked with lengths of pipe, and cement mixers seem to be rumbling in every direction—proof of the intensive drilling efforts nearby.
Published October 22, 2010
A Changing Landscape
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Natural gas drill rigs seem to rise from the farmland in rural Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania.
For decades, geologists knew about the Marcellus shale formation that underlies the Pennsylvania countryside. But it was simply an underground barrier, an annoyance to energy firms focused on little pockets of oil and gas in the sandstone below. But all that has changed. Just within the past three years, scores of energy companies proved that by combining and supercharging some old oil industry technologies, they could blast fissures through that rock to yield sizable amounts of natural gas. Farms and pastures now bear signs of the new development.
Published October 22, 2010
The Big Energy Picture
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
A rig employee performs a security check at a drilling location in southwestern Pennsylvania's Washington County, one of the places where the gas industry is most active.
The shale gas companies frame what they are doing not only as a business opportunity, but a key part of the nation’s big energy picture as well. “We’ve talked a lot about taking control of our energy future in this country,” says Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources, the first company to drill in the Marcellus and one of the most prolific drillers. “Now we have that opportunity, and it really was literally beneath our feet all this time.”
Published October 22, 2010
A Demanding Problem
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
A Marcellus shale drill rig pad in southwestern Pennsylvania is surrounded by equipment.
The development holds the promise of cheap, plentiful natural gas, drawing interest from energy companies around the world and prompting firms to drill hundreds of new wells. But the economics of natural gas aren't clear-cut. Ironically, natural gas prices are extremely low now, partly because the slow economy has kept all energy prices down and partly because drilling for shale gas has pushed new supply onto the market when demand is weak.
Published October 22, 2010
Jobs and Controversy
Photograph courtesy Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center
At shale gas sites, the driller manages the well from a bay of computer screens in an enclosed control room, as demonstrated here by instructors at the Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center, located at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, in the northern part of the state.
It is one effort that's being made to prepare Pennsylvania workers for what is hoped will be new, good-paying jobs to replace lost blue-collar employment across the state. But for now, the actual work on rigs is dominated by experienced workers from longtime oil and gas states like Texas and Oklahoma.
Published October 22, 2010
Drill Lessons
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Michael Forgione, a senior engineer at Range Resources, gives a rundown on the energy business outside a mobile teaching trailer used in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to explain to community groups the shale gas process.
Range is a partner of The Mobile Energy Education Training Unit, or MEET-U, a truck trailer with a museum that provides the outreach. Such efforts are important, says Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella. “The challenge is demonstrating to people that this is not the second coming of the coal industry from 100 years ago,” he says.
Published October 22, 2010
Proving Ground
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
Two natural gas condensation tanks dot the landscape of a Pennsylvania farm in the heart of the Marcellus shale development.
How successfully natural gas producers will apply their new technology, whether they can add wealth to a place while preserving its cherished land and water, and how much fuel they can provide a world in dire need of cleaner energy—all will be decided on Pennsylvania’s farmland, and in its shale.
Published October 22, 2010
The Midnight Oil
Photograph by Scott Goldsmith, National Geographic
A worker walks beside mobile trailers stationed at a Pennsylvania drill site that are a home away from home for experienced employees brought in from other states.
They typically live for two-week stints right at the well sites, where operations continue 24 hours a day. Once a well is complete, the industry says it expects the site will produce gas for 30 years. But drilling in the Marcellus shale is so new that nobody knows how much gas the wells ultimately will yield. There are other uncertainties as well, given that gas companies are trying so hard to keep their costs down in a tough economic environment. New environmental requirements and possible new state taxes could change the economics, and no one knows for sure what will happen to the price of natural gas. The future of the boom hangs in the balance.
Published October 22, 2010