6. Development in the United States

6.1 Shale gas boom

The first natural gas well in the USA was drilled in 1821 – 38 years before the famous "Colonel" Drake well in Pennsylvania – was drilled for shale gas. At a depth of 9 m in what was to become the Marcellus Shale in Fredonia, New York, it was dug by shovel and supplied two stores, two warehouses and a flour mill with gas for lighting.

But the real boom in shale gas production only began in the mid-2000s, with the systematic use of hydraulic fracturing (figure 29 )