Natural Gas

A Miracle In the Marcellus Shale?

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It’s fair to say that lot of people, from shale gas operators to Pennsylvania state revenue collectors, see $$$ every time they think about the Marcellus shale. Only recalcitrant environmentalists worried about polluted drinking water do not salivate at the prospect that many years of U.S. gas supply will come from the Marcellus. Today I will not deal with the environmental issues. Instead, I want to examine the view that resources in the Marcellus are a big part of the shale gas cure-all for America’s energy problems.

Increasing Global Nonrenewable Natural Resource Scarcity—An Analysis

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During the pre-recession years of the 21st century, we experienced wide-ranging nonrenewable natural resource (NNR) scarcity on a global scale for the first time. Supplies associated with an overwhelming majority of the global energy resources, metals, and minerals that enable our industrialized way of life failed to keep pace with increasing global demand during the 2000-2008 period, resulting in global NNR supply shortfalls.

Shale Gas Shenanigans

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In the years leading up to the crash of the Housing Bubble in 2006 and the subsequent financial meltdown in 2008, there was no shortage of people telling us America’s continued prosperity was not in jeopardy. All that talk was nonsense, of course. In 2010, the situation is eerily similar in the natural gas business. We are told that we have 100 years of supply, implying that we will still be producing cheap shale gas long after the oceans are devoid of fish. As in the pre-Housing Bubble days, a few skeptics are crying foul. There are underground rumblings that things are not on the up & up with shale gas.

Gazprom trifecta of woes a potential boon to Europe, the Caspian Sea

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Gazprom, the largest natural gas company in the world, is experiencing a moment of truth. And so, by extension, is Russia, which has relied on the behemoth for a large part of its tax revenue, and as a spearpoint of its foreign policy. The main ramifications are a shakeup in security presumptions in Europe and on the Caspian Sea, both of which until recently have seemed to be under Gazprom’s thumb.