Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The number of oil and gas rigs in the United States has increased an astonishing 38 percent over the past year. That’s according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, which reported this week that the country had 1,070 rigs at the end of January, up from just 773 a year earlier.
Hughes notes that individual shale gas well decline rates range from 80–95% after 36 months, in the top five US plays.
Independent studies published over the last few months cast even more serious doubt over the viability of the shale gas boom.
For people concerned about the harmful effects of fracking in the U.S., they should do whatever they can to prevent natural gas companies from exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). Deborah Rogers—a shale gas industry expert, former investment banker and founder of Energy Policy Forum—underscores the importance of anti-export campaigns. She contends that stopping LNG exports is the most important step citizens can take to prevent shale gas companies from creating even larger industrial fracking zones in their communities.
On March 4, David Frum, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, published an article on CNN.com titled "Peak Oil doomsayers proved wrong" in which he not only claimed there was no danger of a shortage of oil, but also that "our oil problem is that we’re producing so much of the stuff that we are changing the planet’s climate." Mr. Frum is only the most recent contributor to a growing list of luminaries to declare that we need not worry about any future shortage of crude oil. The only problem with these reassuring proclamations is that the physical evidence does not support them, and does in point of fact, warn of a looming imbalance between supply and demand with troubling implications for the U.S. economy.
Are we really entering a new era of energy abundance? Written by geoscientist and PCI Fellow David Hughes, "Drill, Baby, Drill" takes a far-ranging and painstakingly researched look at the prospects for US energy abundance in the 21st Century.
