Do high natural gas prices mean the shale boom is ending?
High natural gas prices seriously undermine the official story that the US has a century of cheap natural gas waiting for the drillbit, Cobb writes.
By Kurt Cobb, Guest blogger / March 26, 2013
csmonitor.com
As U.S. natural gas prices flirt with the $4 mark, some skeptics of the so-called shale gas revolution think prices are headed much higher. Such a move would, not surprisingly, seriously undermine the official story that the United States has a century of cheap natural gas waiting for the drillbit...
...The trend is so ominous that two industry insiders I know believe that U.S. natural gas production could actually start declining soon and send prices soaring. They say drillers have fallen so far behind that it will be impossible to make up for production lost from existing shale gas wells. Those wells typically see production decline rates of 85 percent after two years. (Translation: Some 85 percent of existing production from shale gas wells must be replaced every two years BEFORE production can grow.)The future is, of course, unknown to us. But, the present and the past suggest that the so-called shale gas revolution is about to be laid to rest...
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So $4 gas means "The End is Nigh" for natural gas, at least according to A.S.P.O. member Kurt Cobb the author of the peak-oil-themed novel, 'Prelude,' and A.S.P.O. director Art Berman. |
