The U.S. oil and gas industry may be rebounding after nearly four years of decline. The International Energy Agency is now forecasting a nearly 3 percent per year output for the next five years. And, the agency predicts that shale gas will lead the way with the Marcellus and Utica plays of the Appalachian basin ramping up as much as 45 percent by 2022.
Shawn Bennett is executive vice president of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association. He credits new technologies and the build-out of infrastructure as reasons. He also credits the size of the shale deposits.
“To put this in perspective, if you take Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio -- if you combined those three states and formed them into one country -- we would be the third largest natural gas producer in the world.”
The United States is currently the No. 1 country, supplying more than a fifth of global output.
