There is no denying that the Marcellus Shale is a whopper of a gas play or that production in the Utica Shale—once touted as the little brother to the Marcellus—has certainly bulked up in recent years. Since January 2012, natural gas production in the two regions has accounted for 85% of the increase in natural gas production reported in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report and has driven recent growth in total U.S. natural gas production, according to a press release issued by the EIA in late July.

The phenomenal growth is due in many ways to the years of experience gained by those working in the plays. While experience is a great teacher, it never hurts to have more data to help understand where one is working. The recent announcement of a project studying the effects of shale gas production will help operating and service companies fine-tune their efforts further.

The Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Laboratory (MSEEL) project will monitor the process and progress of unconventional gas production at a Marcellus Shale well near Morgantown, W.Va. The project is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), West Virginia University (WVU), Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) and Ohio State University.

In addition to the continuous monitoring of produced water and air quality, the project provides researchers access to a dedicated science well for subsurface geophysical observation, according to an NETL-issued press release. NNE—a private oil and natural gas company based in Charleston, W.Va., that owns and operates the site—will deploy a range of next-generation well-completion technologies designed to increase operational efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

NNE began drilling the science observation well and two production wells at its site in the Morgantown Industrial Park in June. Researchers will use the vertical science well, situated between the two horizontal production wells, to gather valuable information that will assist with optimizing well placement and hydraulic fracture design with the Marcellus Shale, according to the release.

Activity during the fracture stimulation of the production wells will be monitored. In addition, approximately 30.5 m (100 ft) of whole core and 50 1-in. sidewall cores will be extracted from the science well for geophysical, geochemical and microbiological investigation. At the same time, WVU will continue to monitor and assess baseline air, noise, light and water, which it has done since the project was launched in late 2014, according to the release.

“To date, there has been no comprehensive long-term field study that addresses baseline measurements, subsurface development and environmental monitoring with unconventional resource development,” Dr. Timothy Carr, WVU professor of geology and principal investigator of the award and director of the lab, said in a WVU-issued press release. “No other study can replicate and validate results with subsequent drilling and completion events. The only way to integrate the three is to conduct long-term research on a single site, which is what we are going to be able to do.”

For more information about the MSEEL, visit the project website at mseel.org.

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