Horizontal drilling is a relatively new method of drilling for oil and gas. The technology has been around since the 1980′s but has only been perfected within the past ten years or so.

Horizontal drilling is the main reason that there is now a great abundance of natural gas in the United States. Because horizontal gas wells can penetrate thousands of feet of gas rich shale rock  and release the gas held inside the hard formation, it is making natural gas one of the cheapest fuels.

There are literally dozens of shale formations, or areas of underground shale rock containing natural gas, that can be tapped through horizontal drilling technology. In the countryside of Pennsylvania a large gas boom is underway in the Marcellus Shale and landowners there are reaping large financial windfalls, as are state and local treasuries.

Horizontal drilling can be done safely and without harm to the environment, unlike coal mining, which is highly invasive. This type of drilling for natural gas is already popular in the United States but is only beginning to be exported abroad.

In countries like Australia horizontal drilling is being used to release methane gas from beds of coal that are far too deep to mine. There are shale formations similar to those in the United States scattered across the globe. It’s only a matter of time before natural gas displaces oil as the fossil fuel of choice. It’s a good thing too, since natural gas produces about a third the CO2 that using oil does. For more on horizontal drilling for natural gas see How Horizontal Drilling Is Done