The Marcellus shale is a Devonian-aged shale deposited during the collision of Laurentia and Godwana (two historic land masses) around 385 million years ago. The shale occurs in the subsurface beneath much of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. Small areas of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia are also underlain by the Marcellus Shale.

Geologists have long known that the Marcellus contains natural gas, however, the depth of the rock unit and its low permeability made the Marcellus an unconventional exploration target. Within the past few years, the hydrofracing and horizontal drilling technologies that have been proven in other unconventional reserves like the Barnett have made the Marcellus reserves more economical. The chart below shows how technology has been able to drive 7x productivity in similar reserves.

The Marcellus Shale has similar geological characteristics to other recent successful unconventional plays.

The economic significance Marcellus Shale

Large scale development of unconventional resource plays can have substantial positive economic impacts for local governments and communities. For example, current development of the Barnett Shale is expected to create over 100,000 jobs, $1 billion in state and local taxes, and increase the GDP of the region by 7%. If Marcellus development continues on its current trajectory, it could likely have a similar level of impact, creating up to 65,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania and 35,000 in West Virginia and increasing the GDP of the region by over $10 billion per year.