The Marcellus Shale formation - a hi$$y topic.

The Anti-Atmospheric CO2 Global Warmingists will surely be protesting any attempts at tapping into this.

A ponderous natural-gas reservoir, largely out of reach until now, could more than double the nation's annual output - and it sits underneath practically all of West Virginia.

The gas floats in black shale, fine-grained sedimentary rock, about 5,000 feet below ground in a bed geologists call the Marcellus Shale formation. Though developers have long known about the Marcellus' potential, they've left it mostly untapped because boring down so far proved too expensive.

But with gas prices staying high and new technology becoming more affordable, the Marcellus is suddenly ripe, and drillers all over the state are aiming at it.

"The question is, who isn't thinking about the Marcellus right now?" said Nicholas "Corky" DeMarco, director of the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association trade group. "There are studies of the formation being done all over the state."

According to research released earlier this year by Penn State University and the State University of New York at Fredonia, the Marcellus - which stretches over 54,000 square miles, from upstate New York into Southern West Virginia - could contain as much as 516 trillion cubic feet of gas, though only 50 trillion can be recovered today by existing technology.

By contrast, the nation now produces 30 trillion cubic feet per year, and that amount has been falling.

Tapping the Marcellus could enrich U.S. energy resources by as much as $1 trillion, the study's authors estimated.

http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/Business/200803220388