UPDATE: US Gas Reserves Enough To Last 100 Years - Study
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 30, 2008 1:20 p.m.
(Updates with quote from press conference; more detail from report)
By Christine Buurma and Siobhan Hughes
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. reserves of natural gas total more than 2,247 trillion cubic feet, enough to last more than 100 years, according to a study by the American Clean Skies Foundation and Navigant Consulting, Inc.
The American Clean Skies Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based industry group chaired by Aubrey McClendon, the chairman and chief executive of Chesapeake Energy (CHK), a major natural gas producer based in Oklahoma City.
"We think we're the Saudi Arabia of natural gas," McClendon said at a press conference on Wednesday. "We haven't been making good public policy decisions and we haven't been making good economic decisions because we always thought we had about 10 years worth of natural gas."
Forecasts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration underestimate reserves of natural gas from unconventional sources, including tight sands, coalbed methane and gas from shale formations, according to the study. Although these reserves are more difficult and costly to access, rising hydrocarbon prices have made such drilling activity more economic.
Chesapeake owns significant acreage in U.S. shale plays, including the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and Texas. Information from natural-gas producers shared with Navigant Consulting indicate that the Haynesville Shale may hold a total of 217 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - or almost 10 times the country's consumption last year.
The Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York to West Virginia, may hold about 228 trillion cubic feet.
"New technologies have allowed the rapid emergence of gas shale as a major energy source, representing a truly transformative event for U.S. energy supplies," McClendon said in a statement announcing the study. U.S. natural gas supplies are sufficient for widespread use as a transportation fuel, or to supply electricity for plug-in vehicles, he said.
Natural gas production from shale formations has increased more than sevenfold since 1998 from less than a billion cubic feet a day in 1998 to about 5 bcf/d now, the study said.
Navigant analyzed production and reserve data from studies, state agencies, corporate data and large natural gas producers. |
