Vance recently stated that the natural gas in Pennsylvania could supply the world with 500 years worth of gas. I thought this seemed a little too high :)
Here is what I found:
Global Gas Consumption 132,290,211 million cubic feet per year (from www.worldometers.info), or ~132 trillion cubic feet
Pennsylvania has approximately 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in the ground.
Therefore, PA gas could supply about 1.5 years of global natural gas consumption.
If this calculation is off, please correct, but it looks like Vance needs to back off on his 500 year claim, or the media will go to town with it.
I'm an old school geologist (BS in geology in 1980), and tend to believe that MOST hydrocarbon reserves ARE associated with organic sediments deposited a long time ago (now rock, like the Marcellus Shale). I believe it's possible some hydrocarbon deposits are not associated with organic processes. The amount in the PA shale deposits is apparently a very, very, small quantity when compared to the global use (that's if the various internet sources of this information are correct).
Thanks for the info!