Energy Return on Energy Invested for Tight Gas Wells in the Appalachian Basin, United States of America.docVIP

Sustainability 2011, 3, 1986-2008; doi:10.3390/su3101986 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 /journal/sustainability Article Energy Return on Energy Invested for Tight Gas Wells in the Appalachian Basin, United States of America Bryan Sell 1,*, David Murphy 2 and Charles A.S. Hall 2 1 Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Rue des Mara?chers 13, Geneva 1205, Switzerland 2 Program in Environmental Science, State University of New York – College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA; E-Mails: djmurp03@ (D.M.); chall@ (C.H.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: Bryan.Sell@unige.ch; Tel.: +41-78-883-72-42; Fax: +41-22-379-32-10. Received: 26 June 2011; in revised form: 7 July 2011 / Accepted: 5 August 2011 / Published: 20 October 2011 Abstract: The energy cost of drilling a natural gas well has never been publicly addressed in terms of the actual fuels and energy required to generate the physical materials consumed in construction. Part of the reason for this is that drilling practices are typically regarded as proprietary; hence the required information is difficult to obtain. We propose that conventional tight gas wells that have marginal production characteristics provide a baseline for energy return on energy invested (EROI) analyses. To develop an understanding of baseline energy requirements for natural gas extraction, we examined production from a mature shallow gas field composed of vertical wells in Pennsylvania and materials used in the drilling and completion of individual wells. The data were derived from state maintained databases and reports, personal experience as a production geologist, personal interviews with industry representatives, and literature sources. We examined only the “upstream” energy cost of providing gas and provide a minimal estimate of energy cost because of uncertainty about som