The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) shared this informative graphic that shows how much land is required to produce enough energy to power 8,000 homes for a year. 

It takes just one natural gas well covering 0.02 hectares (0.05 acres) to power 8,000 homes for a year. In comparison, it would take six 3MW wind turbines covering 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres) of land, or a solar farm covering 120 hectares (296.5 acres), to produce the same amount of energy. 

The energy industry is substantially reducing methane emissions from natural gas and oil production and is expected to continue reducing emissions, says an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released September 30, 2014.

According to the EPA, reported methane emissions from the petroleum and natural gas systems sector have decreased by 12 percent since 2011, with the largest reductions coming from hydraulically fractured natural gas wells, which have decreased by 73 percent during that period.

Natural gas vehicles are cost efficient and boast low emissions, and it seems that Texas has caught on. Sales of natural gas as a motor fuel are surging in Texas. In October 2013, Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter launched a natural gas initiative to promote natural gas as a transportation fuel throughout the state of Texas, and recent reports are promising.

It may not be widely known, but the air in the Barnett Shale area of North Texas is the most monitored air in the U.S. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has installed a system of 15 permanent automated gas chromatograph (AutoGC) stations in the Barnett Shale area that take air samples every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The data is available to the public online.

On February 24, 2014, the EPA released its latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which shows that methane emissions from natural gas systems have declined significantly in recent years, thanks to new technologies and voluntary efforts by oil and natural gas producers. Even more impressive is that these reductions have been made as natural gas production has increased significantly.

A new and important study of the air quality in the Barnett Shale was released by Houston-based ToxStrategies, Inc. This study, published in the peer-reviewed “Science of The Total Environment,” is the first large-scale evaluation based on extensive measurements of ambient air in a shale gas producing area. The investigators concluded that Barnett Shale gas production activities have not resulted in community-wide exposures to chemicals at levels that would pose health concerns.

Water disposal at oil and natural gas drilling sites is a costly business. According to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, the water and disposal costs for just one well in areas such as the Marcellus Shale or West Texas can reach or surpass $1 million. Due to either dry and arid climates or expensive water disposal resources in certain regions, producers charge excessive costs to acquire and dispose of wastewater. 

Recently, there has been good news and bad news regarding emissions of carbon dioxide in the United States and the world. The good news is that last year, America’s carbon dioxide emissions fell to their lowest levels since 1994, according to a new Energy Information Administration (EIA) report. Additionally, carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. have declined 13 percent in the past five years.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) operates seven continuous air monitors in the Barnett Shale area in North Texas. TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw, Ph.D., has said in the past that the number of continuous air monitors, or automatic gas chromatographs, makes the Barnett Shale air the most monitored air in the country. The devices, which are about the size of a small travel trailer and are permanently installed, take air samples every hour for 23 hours a day – except between 11 p.m. and midnight when the machines are recalibrated.

Do you ever wonder how much water is used to drill and hydraulically fracture natural gas wells in the Barnett Shale? Well, the answer may surprise you because it is, in fact, very little. To answer the question, we asked the largest provider of water in the Barnett Shale area, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD).