November 5, 2009

The 'Shale Gale'

Us Energy

Via American Thinker comes this graph of the day showing the extraordinary fossil fuel energy resources the United States has - more than Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezula and Canada.  The figures are sourced from this Congressional Research Service report released last week.

Randall Hoven pulls out these statistics from that same report.

Total fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) reserves of the US, in Barrels of Oil Equivalent:  1,321.3 billion BOE.

US consumption of fossil fuels in 2008:  14.8 billion BOE.

Earlier this week Daniel Yergin in the WSJ wrote about America's Natural Gas Revolution

Yet the natural gas revolution has unfolded with no great fanfare, no grand opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting. It just crept up. In 1990, unconventional gas—from shales, coal-bed methane and so-called "tight" formations—was about 10% of total U.S. production. Today it is around 40%, and growing fast, with shale gas by far the biggest part.

The potential of this "shale gale" only really became clear around 2007. In Washington, D.C., the discovery has come later—only in the last few months. Yet it is already changing the national energy dialogue and overall energy outlook in the U.S.—and could change the global natural gas balance.
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With more drilling experience, U.S. estimates are likely to rise dramatically in the next few years. At current levels of demand, the U.S. has about 90 years of proven and potential supply—a number that is bound to go up as more and more shale gas is found.

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A  'shale gale' of unconventional and abundant U.S. gas is transforming the energy market.

Posted by Jill Fallon at November 5, 2009 8:32 AM | Permalink
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