Range Resources

Contact: Matt Pitzarella, +1 724.743.6700

Unlocking Fuel from Marcellus Shale

In 2004 Range Resources unlocked the largest clean burning natural gas field in the United States by pioneering the development of the Marcellus Shale - an organically rich, mile-deep rock formation that's older than the dinosaurs, which may hold enough energy to last our nation for a century or longer. This vast unconventional natural gas discovery and others like it in the United States have dramatically increased our nation's clean burning domestic energy reserves, as well as the world.

The United States Energy Information Association predicts domestic use of natural gas will increase more than 20-percent and worldwide consumption to increase 40-percent in the coming decades. In fact, natural gas is expected to account for 57-percent of all new electric generation in the United States, which is more than all other forms of energy combined. As our nation marches towards a clean energy future, natural gas will serve as the bridge fuel to the future and remain as a permanent fixture in the world's clean energy portfolio.

Unconventional reservoirs like the Marcellus Shale are now being discovered across the world and the technological improvements and breakthroughs happening in Pennsylvania will help to provide the world with access to abundant, affordable and clean supplies of natural gas for generations.

Geoscientists have known the Marcellus Shale has existed for decades, but it wasn't until a combination of market demands and technological advances that helped propel Range Resources to make the break through five years ago. Since that time the energy industry has invested more than $5 billion in the development of the natural gas field and created tens of thousands of new, high-paying jobs. Companies from across the globe are investing in the Marcellus, even as worldwide investment has slowed.

Range Resources is an independent oil and gas company operating in the Southwestern, Appalachian and Gulf Coast regions of the United States and is the largest natural gas producer in Pennsylvania. Now headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas the company was founded in the Appalachian region and has operated in Pennsylvania for more than 25 years. Range employs more than 200 Pennsylvanians and has modern natural gas operations across the state.