[rwh]

Wow. this would be great for these Appalachian states as development would bring many high paying jobs. It will be interesting to find out if they will need to frac the wells to produce, as fracturing the wells is very expensive. I work in the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields in Wyoming and every well needs to be fractured for production. Even though the price for natural gas coming out of these fields average $1-2 dollars lower per MMBtu than the national average, it is still more than economically viable for companies to produce these wells.

[thackney]

It will be interesting to find out if they will need to frac the wells to produce, as fracturing the wells is very expensive.

In the article above it states:

In a gas shale such as the Marcellus shale, the host rock constitutes both the hydrocarbon source and reservoir, with either natural or man-made fractures needed to induce the gas to flow from the rock. That, then, raises a question regarding the feasibility of producing gas from the Marcellus shale. Engelder and Lash have presented evidence for fracturing in the shale that could provide a key to successful gas production.