North America natural gas market dynamics

Currently, the Antrim Shale (Northern Michigan), the Barnett Shale (Fort Worth Basin, North Texas), the Devonian/Ohio Shales (Appalachia), the Fayetteville Shale (Arkansas), the Haynesville Shale (Louisiana), the Marcellus Shale (Appalachia), the New Albany (Illinois/Indiana) and the Woodford Shale (Oklahoma) are all established and commercially-producing plays. [...] According to the Centre for Energy, the natural gas molecules are generally stored in three ways: adsorbed into the organic matter in the shales, trapped in the pore spaces of the fine-grained sediments interbedded with the shale, or trapped in fractures within the shale itself.9 The exploitable occurrences are low permeability, with low production rates from the natural fracture system. [...] The above graphic illustrates a horizontal well, in which the wellbore is drilled vertically and then angled horizontally through the target formation.10 Drilling horizontally exposes the wellbore to more of the reservoir, thereby increasing recovery rates for gas shale.11 The 10 Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer, US Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and the N [...] While frac’ing has been around since the 1940s, it was fracs by Mitchell Energy in the 1990s that changed the outlook and the role of shale gas in North America.13 The company began utilizing frac’ing in the Barnett Shale that changed the outlook and role of the shale gas in North America. [...] In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers federal environmental laws, the exception being if development occurs on federal land.26 In this case the land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service.27 The former is a part of the Department of the Interior while the latter is a part of the Department of Agriculture.28 The EPA is charged with pro