Review of Emerging Resources: U.S. Shale Gas and Shale Oil Plays

Abstract

The use of horizontal drilling in conjunction with hydraulic fracturing has greatly expanded the ability of producers to profitably recover natural gas and oil from low-permeability geologic playsparticularly, shale plays. Application of fracturing techniques to stimulate oil and gas production began to grow rapidly in the 1950s, although experimentation dates back to the 19th century. Starting in the mid-1970s, a partnership of private operators, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and predecessor agencies, and the Gas Research Institute (GRI) endeavored to develop technologies for the commercial production of natural gas from the relatively shallow Devonian (Huron) shale in the eastern United States. This partnership helped foster technologies that eventually became crucial to the production of natural gas from shale rock, including horizontal wells, multi-stage fracturing, and slick- water fracturing.1 Practical application of horizontal drilling to oil production began in the early 1980s, by which time the advent of improved downhole drilling motors and the invention of other necessary supporting equipment, materials, and technologies (particularly, downhole telemetry equipment) had brought some applications within the realm of commercial viability. 2