Geologists and engineers from across the nation have come together this week at West Virginia Universitys National Research Center for Coal and Energy to learn about tapping the natural gas resources in Devonian Black Shale.

The geological formation is 4,000-8,000 feet below Appalachia. It spans New York to Kentucky and holds an estimated $12-150 billion worth of natural gas.

Douglas Patchendirector of the NRCCE s Petroleum Technology Transfer Center, which is conducting a two-day workshopsaid geologists and petroleum engineers want to understand the natural fractures in the Devonian. Fractures play a critical role in recovering the most natural gas possible.

Fracture formation in any geological basin is a complex process,Patchen said.Its pretty esoteric, but understanding it is what helps geologists and engineers find the resources we need to keep our homes warm at reasonable prices.

The average household in the United States uses 82,000-86,000 cubic feet, or Mcf, of natural gas each year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that residential consumers in the Southeast and Northeast tend to pay the most, with prices ranging from $17 to more than $20 per Mcf, or $1,394 to $1,720 per year. But states in which natural gas is produced or who have major gas distribution lines tend to pay between $10 and $15. West Virginians pay about $15.

Demand from East Coast markets keeps our prices on the higher side,Patchen said.To give you some idea how prices have changed, I paid 66 cents per Mcf for natural gas when I moved to Morgantown in 1966. Resources are getting harder to retrieve, making drilling and production for a single well more expensive, which is why learning how to get the most gas per well really does matter to the consumer.

Workshop instructor Terry Engelder is a geoscience professor at Pennsylvania State University and a fracture behavior expert in formations worldwide.

The 175 workshop participants are from all the major oil and gas states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and many of the Appalachian states. The workshop began Tuesday and concludes at 5 p.m. today (Jan. 9).

The NRCCE s Petroleum Technology Transfer Center is one of six regional centers across the nation managed by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The center is dedicated to providing world-class information of greatest interest to the energy industry. For more information, visithttp://www.nrcce.wvu.edu/.