IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/bioerq/v1y2016i1d10.1007_s41247-016-0006-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Net Energy Analysis of Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale

Author

Listed:
  • Devin Moeller

    (Northern Illinois University)

  • David Murphy

    (St. Lawrence University)

Abstract

Total production of dry natural gas in the USA increased to 24.4 Tcf in 2013, a 35 % increase from 2005 levels. This increase was largely a result of the rapid development of shale resources in the lower 48 states. The Marcellus play alone accounted for nearly 15 % of the total dry gas produced in 2013. In this study, we calculate the energy return on investment (EROI) using a hybrid life-cycle analysis approach bounded by three process stages: (1) EROIP&P, which includes production and processing energetic costs; (2) EROIP,P&T, which considers production, processing, and transportation; and (3) EROIGRID, which includes the energetic costs associated with electricity generation. Most significantly, the inclusion of electricity generation within the EROI analysis makes possible a functional unit comparison to alternative sources of energy into the power grid. Well pad preparation and well drilling had the largest energy costs of all the upstream process stages, accounting for nearly 75 % of production and processing costs. However, the largest energy consumer among the process stages is the cost associated with electricity production, and our model assumes 43 % power plant efficiency, accounting for nearly 94 % of the total energy costs of producing electricity from natural gas. Defined by process stage, our analysis calculated an EROIP&P of 39.7, a EROIP,P&T of 24.9, and an EROIGRID of 10.7. The EROIGRID value of 10 is the same as that calculated for photovoltaic systems, indicating that shale gas, when burned for electricity, provides similar net energy benefits to society as an average PV system.

Suggested Citation

  • Devin Moeller & David Murphy, 2016. "Net Energy Analysis of Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-13, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:bioerq:v:1:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s41247-016-0006-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s41247-016-0006-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41247-016-0006-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41247-016-0006-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lindqvist, Karl & Jordal, Kristin & Haugen, Geir & Hoff, Karl Anders & Anantharaman, Rahul, 2014. "Integration aspects of reactive absorption for post-combustion CO2 capture from NGCC (natural gas combined cycle) power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 758-767.
    2. Nathan Gagnon & Charles A.S. Hall & Lysle Brinker, 2009. "A Preliminary Investigation of Energy Return on Energy Investment for Global Oil and Gas Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Michael L. Aucott & Jacqueline M. Melillo, 2013. "A Preliminary Energy Return on Investment Analysis of Natural Gas from the Marcellus Shale," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(5), pages 668-679, October.
    4. Cleveland, Cutler J., 2005. "Net energy from the extraction of oil and gas in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 769-782.
    5. Adam R. Brandt, 2011. "Oil Depletion and the Energy Efficiency of Oil Production: The Case of California," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-22, October.
    6. David Murphy & Charles Hall & Bobby Powers, 2011. "New perspectives on the energy return on (energy) investment (EROI) of corn ethanol," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 179-202, February.
    7. Raugei, Marco & Fullana-i-Palmer, Pere & Fthenakis, Vasilis, 2012. "The energy return on energy investment (EROI) of photovoltaics: Methodology and comparisons with fossil fuel life cycles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 576-582.
    8. Brandt, Adam R. & Englander, Jacob & Bharadwaj, Sharad, 2013. "The energy efficiency of oil sands extraction: Energy return ratios from 1970 to 2010," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 693-702.
    9. Megan C. Guilford & Charles A.S. Hall & Peter O’Connor & Cutler J. Cleveland, 2011. "A New Long Term Assessment of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for U.S. Oil and Gas Discovery and Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-22, October.
    10. Charles A. S. Hall & Stephen Balogh & David J.R. Murphy, 2009. "What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, January.
    11. Hiroaki Yaritani & Jun Matsushima, 2014. "Analysis of the Energy Balance of Shale Gas Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-21, April.
    12. Bryan Sell & David Murphy & Charles A.S. Hall, 2011. "Energy Return on Energy Invested for Tight Gas Wells in the Appalachian Basin, United States of America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-23, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David J. Murphy & Marco Raugei & Michael Carbajales-Dale & Brenda Rubio Estrada, 2022. "Energy Return on Investment of Major Energy Carriers: Review and Harmonization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Carlos de Castro & Iñigo Capellán-Pérez, 2020. "Standard, Point of Use, and Extended Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI) from Comprehensive Material Requirements of Present Global Wind, Solar, and Hydro Power Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-43, June.
    3. Charles Guay-Boutet, 2023. "Estimating the Disaggregated Standard EROI of Canadian Oil Sands Extracted via Open-pit Mining, 1997–2016," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Wang, Jianliang & Liu, Mingming & McLellan, Benjamin C. & Tang, Xu & Feng, Lianyong, 2017. "Environmental impacts of shale gas development in China: A hybrid life cycle analysis," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 38-45.
    5. Palmer, Graham, 2017. "An input-output based net-energy assessment of an electricity supply industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1504-1516.
    6. Jingxuan Feng & Lianyong Feng & Jianliang Wang, 2018. "Analysis of Point-of-Use Energy Return on Investment and Net Energy Yields from China’s Conventional Fossil Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Graham Palmer & Joshua Floyd, 2017. "An Exploration of Divergence in EPBT and EROI for Solar Photovoltaics," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Emmanuel Aramendia & Paul E. Brockway & Peter G. Taylor & Jonathan B. Norman & Matthew K. Heun & Zeke Marshall, 2024. "Estimation of useful-stage energy returns on investment for fossil fuels and implications for renewable energy systems," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(7), pages 803-816, July.
    9. Louis Delannoy & Pierre-Yves Longaretti & David. J. Murphy & Emmanuel Prados, 2021. "Assessing Global Long-Term EROI of Gas: A Net-Energy Perspective on the Energy Transition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Guay-Boutet, Charles & Dufour, Mathieu, 2024. "Estimating the relationship between EROI and profitability of oil sands mining, 1997–2016," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    11. Devin Moeller & David Murphy, 2019. "Comments on Energy Return on Investment (EROI): Reconciling Boundary and Methodological Issues," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1-3, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Xuejun & Lu, Hailong & Gu, Lijuan & Shang, Shilong & Zhang, Yi & Huang, Xin & Zhang, Le, 2022. "Preliminary evaluation of the economic potential of the technologies for gas hydrate exploitation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    2. Brandt, Adam R. & Yeskoo, Tim & Vafi, Kourosh, 2015. "Net energy analysis of Bakken crude oil production using a well-level engineering-based model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2191-2198.
    3. Fizaine, Florian & Court, Victor, 2015. "Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 106-118.
    4. Zhaoyang Kong & Xiucheng Dong & Bo Xu & Rui Li & Qiang Yin & Cuifang Song, 2015. "EROI Analysis for Direct Coal Liquefaction without and with CCS: The Case of the Shenhua DCL Project in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Lina I. Brand-Correa & Paul E. Brockway & Claire L. Copeland & Timothy J. Foxon & Anne Owen & Peter G. Taylor, 2017. "Developing an Input-Output Based Method to Estimate a National-Level Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    6. Victor Court & Florian Fizaine, 2014. "Energy transition towards renewables and metal depletion: an approach through the EROI concept," Post-Print hal-01411803, HAL.
    7. Jingxuan Feng & Lianyong Feng & Jianliang Wang, 2018. "Analysis of Point-of-Use Energy Return on Investment and Net Energy Yields from China’s Conventional Fossil Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, February.
    8. David J. Murphy & Michael Carbajales-Dale & Devin Moeller, 2016. "Comparing Apples to Apples: Why the Net Energy Analysis Community Needs to Adopt the Life-Cycle Analysis Framework," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, November.
    9. Salehi, Mohammad & Khajehpour, Hossein & Saboohi, Yadollah, 2020. "Extended Energy Return on Investment of multiproduct energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Delannoy, Louis & Longaretti, Pierre-Yves & Murphy, David J. & Prados, Emmanuel, 2021. "Peak oil and the low-carbon energy transition: A net-energy perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    11. Hall, Charles A.S. & Lambert, Jessica G. & Balogh, Stephen B., 2014. "EROI of different fuels and the implications for society," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 141-152.
    12. Hu, Yan & Hall, Charles A.S. & Wang, Jianliang & Feng, Lianyong & Poisson, Alexandre, 2013. "Energy Return on Investment (EROI) of China's conventional fossil fuels: Historical and future trends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 352-364.
    13. David Grassian & Daniel Olsen, 2019. "Lifecycle Energy Accounting of Three Small Offshore Oil Fields," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    14. Carey W. King & John P. Maxwell & Alyssa Donovan, 2015. "Comparing World Economic and Net Energy Metrics, Part 1: Single Technology and Commodity Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-26, November.
    15. Arodudu, Oludunsin Tunrayo & Helming, Katharina & Voinov, Alexey & Wiggering, Hubert, 2017. "Integrating agronomic factors into energy efficiency assessment of agro-bioenergy production – A case study of ethanol and biogas production from maize feedstock," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 426-439.
    16. Wang, Jianliang & Liu, Mingming & McLellan, Benjamin C. & Tang, Xu & Feng, Lianyong, 2017. "Environmental impacts of shale gas development in China: A hybrid life cycle analysis," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 38-45.
    17. Ke Wang & Harrie Vredenburg & Jianliang Wang & Yi Xiong & Lianyong Feng, 2017. "Energy Return on Investment of Canadian Oil Sands Extraction from 2009 to 2015," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-13, May.
    18. Court, Victor & Fizaine, Florian, 2017. "Long-Term Estimates of the Energy-Return-on-Investment (EROI) of Coal, Oil, and Gas Global Productions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 145-159.
    19. Xie, Minghua & Wei, Xiaonan & Chen, Chuanglian & Sun, Chuanwang, 2022. "China's natural gas production peak and energy return on investment (EROI): From the perspective of energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Charles Guay-Boutet, 2023. "Estimating the Disaggregated Standard EROI of Canadian Oil Sands Extracted via Open-pit Mining, 1997–2016," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:bioerq:v:1:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s41247-016-0006-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.