Shale Gas Was Almost a Quarter of U.S. Output in 2010, EIA Says
2011-04-05 21:43:06.719 GMT


By Christine Buurma
     April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas from shale formations
comprised 23 percent of total U.S. production in 2010, according
to the Energy Department.
     Shale gas output was 4.87 trillion cubic feet in 2010, the
department’s Energy information Administration said in a release
today. That’s a 57 percent increase from 3.11 trillion in 2009,
according to department data released in December.
     In an assessment of 48 shale basins in 32 countries, the
EIA said technically recoverable shale gas resources totaled
5,760 trillion cubic feet. Adding the U.S. estimate of 862
trillion results in a total shale resource base estimate of
6,622 trillion cubic feet for the United States and the other 32
countries assessed.
     Adding shale gas to other gas resources increases total
world technically recoverable gas by more than 40 percent to
22,600 trillion cubic feet, the report showed.

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--Editors: Bill Banker, Richard Stubbe

To contact the reporter on this story:
Christine Buurma in New York at +1-212-617-4302 or
cbuurma1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or
dstets@bloomberg.net