USGS National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project - Shale Gas Assessment Units

The U.S. Geological Survey has compiled a map of shale gas assessments in the United States that were completed by 2012, such assessments having been included as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey quantitatively estimated potential volumes of undiscovered gas within shale-gas assessment units. These shale-gas assessment units are mapped, and square-mile cells are shown to represent proprietary shale-gas wells. The square-mile cells include gas-producing wells from shale intervals.

In some cases, shale gas formations contain gas in deeper parts of a basin and oil at shallower depths (for example, the Woodford Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale). Because a discussion of shale oil is beyond the scope of this report, only shale gas assessment units and cells are shown.

The map can be printed as a hardcopy map or downloaded for interactive analysis in a Geographic Information System data package using the ArcGIS map document (file extension MXD) and published map file (file extension PMF). Also available is a publications access table with hyperlinks to current U.S. Geological Survey shale gas assessment publications and web pages. Assessment results and geologic reports are available as completed at the U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resources Program Web Site, http://energy.usgs.gov/OilGas/AssessmentsData/NationalOilGasAssessment.aspx.

A historical perspective of shale gas activity in the United States is documented below and presented in a video clip included as a PowerPoint slideshow.

美国地质调查局（U.S. Geological Survey）汇编了截至2012年完成的美国页岩气（shale gas）评估地图，此类评估作为美国地质调查局全国油气项目评估（U.S. Geological Survey National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project）的组成部分已被纳入其中。研究采用基于地质学的评估方法，对页岩气评估单元内未发现天然气的潜在资源量进行了定量估算。本次研究已完成页岩气评估单元的制图，并以平方英里格网单元表征私有页岩气井，这些格网单元涵盖了产自页岩层段的产气井。
在部分情形下，页岩气地层在盆地深部赋存天然气，而在较浅深度则产出页岩油（shale oil），例如伍德福德页岩（Woodford Shale）与伊格尔福特页岩（Eagle Ford Shale）。由于本报告的讨论范围不涵盖页岩油，因此仅展示页岩气评估单元与对应格网。
该地图可打印为纸质地图，或通过ArcGIS地图文档（文件扩展名MXD）与发布地图文件（文件扩展名PMF）下载至地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）数据包中进行交互式分析。此外还提供了带有超链接的出版物访问表格，可跳转至美国地质调查局当前的页岩气评估相关出版物与网页。评估结果与地质报告可在美国地质调查局能源资源项目官网（http://energy.usgs.gov/OilGas/AssessmentsData/NationalOilGasAssessment.aspx）获取。
下文将梳理美国页岩气活动的历史脉络，并以PowerPoint幻灯片演示文稿附带的视频片段进行呈现。