[copious.abundance]

^
All you have to do is follow the following format:

<url=http://www.somelink.com/somestory/>Click here</url>

Except replace < and > with [ and ]

[copious.abundance]

Now the Wall Street Journal is getting in on the action.

--> Bad Call <--
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he conventional wisdom said that the U.S. would soon become a big importer of natural gas. The conventional wisdom blew it.

Mr. Greenspan and the industry experts who shared this view -- and there were many -- couldn't have been more wrong. But within a year of his testimony, there were plans for 40 new or expanded LNG terminals under consideration in North America, according to a tally by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. By March 2005, the list had grown to 55.

Today only six have been built, and most of those sit idle. Weeks pass between visits from a tanker full of frosty LNG. Even before the economic slowdown, it was clear the nation had ample natural-gas supplies. Large-scale imports simply weren't needed. And new reports suggest the U.S. won't need to turn into a massive importer of natural gas anytime soon.

How did the conventional wisdom get it so wrong?

[...]

Last year, a little more than 1% of gas consumed in the U.S. was delivered into the nation's pipeline grid by LNG tankers. Some analysts have begun asking whether LNG import levels will ever rise much above this level. "North America may be out of the loop, may be self-sufficient," says Jim Jensen, a natural-gas consultant in Weston, Mass.

Mr. Souki insists that the situation will improve and that gas prices will moderate at a level favoring imports because of their lower operating costs. "I have not changed my views," he says.

Others believe that more LNG will come to the U.S. this year as well -- but not to make up for domestic shortfalls, as routinely happens with oil.

Dumping Ground?

Instead, North America is becoming a dumping ground for the world's excess natural gas. In 2009, new LNG supplies from Indonesia, Qatar, Russia and Yemen are expected to enter global markets, at a time when a depressed global economy has shrunk demand for fuel. The U.S. Gulf Coast, meanwhile, is perhaps the only region in the world capable of absorbing and storing this enormous excess gas supply.

LNG sellers will first fill up markets in Asia and Europe, which pay top prices. What's left over will likely head to underused terminals in North America. It's "the market of last resort," says Ira Joseph, an LNG analyst with PIRA Energy in New York.

[...]

[Maddog78]

Damn LNG imports, Maddog and ROCKMAN want to keep their jobs!
Well, at least I do.

[ROCKMAN]

I with you maddog. Unless of course I get a gig overseas developing a NG field for LNG exports to the US. In that case: Damn maddog for his selfishness!!!!

[Maddog78]

I worked internationally for over 20 yrs.
I'd like to stay a little closer to home in my old age.
Selfish, I guess, lol.

[ROCKMAN]

maddog,

I did my first expat hitch in Equatorial Guinea in '07. I had geared my personal life to the 28-day schedule. For those following this idle chatter many overseas jobs work on a 28 day rotation: work 28 days and the fly home for 28 days. Not many jobs where you get 6 months vacation (unpaid of course) a year. Worked well with my 6 yo daughter: missed half of everything but was there with her 24/7 for a month.

My only real concern is that since I dropped out on international rotation I've lost what little seniority I had. And that could mean heading off to Nigeria.

[Maddog78]

My last rotation job, 2yrs. ago, was Nigeria.
I was out of Lagos not P.H./Delta area so it wasn't so bad.
It was still Nigeria though. Good luck.

[Maddog78]

Well ROCKMAN, I'm thinking if we can get through this next yr. OK, it should be smooth sailing in our business again.


http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idAFN1136731020090211?rpc=44


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')OUSTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - North America's natural gas supply bubble could last another six to 18 months but prices will probably not drop much lower, the head of TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO), one of the continent's largest natural gas pipeline operators, said.

U.S. gas prices topped $13 per thousand cubic feet in July but have fallen 65 percent to below $5, caused first by an unexpected boom in production, then later by concerns about the weak economy and its impact on demand. Inventories started the winter at their second highest level ever, and still remain above the average.

"We could see things tightening up this summer. It could be as long as a year and a half from now," said Harold N. Kvisle, president and CEO of Transcanada,said in an interview late Tuesday on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference.

"I can't see the price falling a whole lot from where it is today because you start to run into the cost structure pretty soon," he told Reuters.

Kvisle said North America every year needs to add 13 billion cubic feet (Bcf) a day of new natural gas production just to sustain current consumption of about 75 Bcf a day. When drilling slows as prices drop, supply and demand come into balance quickly, he said.

[ROCKMAN]

Let's hope so dog. I keep hearing tales (but haven't seen the actual reports) of a potential glut of imported LNG heading this way. But you know how that goes: they gear up the overseas LNG plants when prices were high but pull their collective necks back in when there's weak price support.

Same old cycle. At least this time around I minimized my overhead so I can stand being sent to the house for a year or so. But I still have an 8 yo daughter who told me last fall she had decided she wants to be a horse vet. I just keep telling her to keep her grades up unless she wants to see her 70 yo dad working as a WalMart greeter while she's going to Texas A&M.

[copious.abundance]

It's official: The Haynesville shale is the best thing since sliced bread:

>>> Haynesville Shale Primed to Become World's Largest Gas Field by 2020 <<<
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Haynesville Shale may eventually become the world's largest producing gas field, Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy and a pioneer of the play in east Texas and northwest Louisiana, said Wednesday.

Chesapeake expects the play, which only became widely known when the company began talking about it last March, will produce at least 500 Tcf over time and then recover around 700 Tcf before potentially growing even larger, McClendon said during a presentation to the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference in Houston.

"We think in time it will become the largest gas field in the world at 1.5 quadrillion cubic feet," he added.

[...]

[careinke]

And yet CHK has gone from $63 to under $19 in less than a year. I wonder why with all that gas available to them.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CHK&t=1y&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=

[copious.abundance]

^
The price of natural gas (and CHK's stock) has fallen, at least in part, because all that gas has become available to them.

[Maddog78]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n the past, the U.S. gas business was focused on geology and geophysics. Now, says Pursell, “It’s a much more of a completion and engineering game.”

[ROCKMAN]

Yeah yeah yeah...completion engineers rule...blah...blah...blah.

It still helps to find a few of those natural fractures.

[Maddog78]

Pffffft, geologists.


"Well maybe it's a little greater than or it could be lower but maybe it's just a fault."

Can never pin them down. Don't they know us inginears like things to three decimal points?

[ROCKMAN]

You got it dog. You've heard this old joke?

Question: What's 2+2 = ?

Lawyer - What do you want it to mean?
Engineer - 4.00000000000
Geologist - Somewhere between 3 and 5

[Maddog78]

Yeah, for sure.
and a few more.




Co. Man: I'll have to call town and get back to you.
Roughneck Who gives a fuck, pass me that 48.
Shakerhand (Loudly!) Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
Schlumberger Wireline Eng: It'll cost you $400,000.00 and we can't guarantee the data.

[ROCKMAN]

OF2,

Speaking of Barnett Shale potential out side the FW Basin I thought you might find this intersting...especially XTO's involvement

Summary: "Hydrocarbon Potential of the Barnett Shale (Mississippian), Delaware Basin, West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico" -- You may know it well in the Fort Worth Basin. Come learn about the potential of the Barnett Shale in the Delaware Basin from XTO Energy.

ABSTRACT
The Barnett Shale (Mississippian) in the Delaware Basin has the potential to be a prolific gas producer. The shale is organic rich and thermally mature over large parts of the basin. Depths to the Barnett range from 7000 ft (2133 m) along the western edge of the basin to more than 18,000 ft (5486 m) along the basin axis. The Barnett Shale began generating petroleum about 250 Ma and reached its maximum temperature about 260 Ma. Present-day thermal maturity is indicative of maximum burial and temperature. Wells in northern Reeves County are in the gas window based on measured vitrinite reflectance values and kerogen transformation ratios. The shale can be divided into an upper clastic unit and a lower limy unit by changes in resistivity. The lower unit can be subdivided into five subunits by distinctive well-log markers. Preliminary analyses suggest that intervals in the lower Barnett marked by high resistivity and high neutron porosity readings on well logs have high gas contents. Areas in which to focus the future exploration in the lower Barnett can be delineated by mapping a net resistivity greater than 50 ohm m. The Barnett Shale contains significant gas resources in the Delaware Basin. Realizing the potential of these resources depends on the current efforts to optimize drilling and completion techniques for this shale-gas play.

[copious.abundance]

^
I was reading EOG's conference call last week and they're saying the Barnett is turning into a "combo play" because large sections of it along its western sides have lots of oil. But they're also saying gas production from it will probably peak in the next few years, largely because everyone is moving their rigs to the Haynesville, which offers a lot more bang for their buck.

But thanks for the info, I didn't know the Barnett went all the way over there.

On the other hand, in doing my web search for the Tuscaloosa (see last post that thread) I discovered the Haynesville goes all the way to southern Mississippi (or was it Alabama?). Though it's very deep by the time it gets there. So nothing surprises me by now.

[ROCKMAN]

That was my point the other day. I'm not much on regional geology out side the GOM but as you know there a numerous basins or depocenters around the country...or world for that matter. In many cases what one might call the XYZ Shale may exist in basins distal from each other and were never physically continuous. But since they occur at the same time some will give them the same formation name. You watch the big picture closer then I do so keep an eye out for time references for the different formations. I do know that Devonian age shales make up a significant part of the stratigraphic section across the US.

I'll see if I can google a nation-wide stratigraphic chart.