A recently released Rice University study dispels the myth that America’s shale gas reserves are nowhere near as substantial as assessments by the Energy Information Administration and the U.S.G.S., among others.
“The idea that shale gas is a flash-in-the-pan is simply incorrect,” said Kenneth Medlock III, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow for Energy and Resources Economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute and the co-author of the study.
The study dismisses the notion, recently proposed in a New York Times article titled “Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush,” that the economic potential of recent shale gas discoveries is a transitory occurrence.
The study projects that U.S. shale production will more than quadruple by 2040 from 2010 levels of more than 10 billion cubic feet per day, reaching more than 50 percent of total U.S. natural gas production by the 2030s. The study incorporates independent scientific and economic literature on shale costs and resources, including assessments by organizations such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the Potential Gas Committee and scholarly peer-reviewed papers of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
The study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, addressed a wide range of domestic and international issues relating to the development of global shale gas reserves. Said Medlock,
“The geologic data on the shale resource is hard science and the innovations that have occurred in the field to make this resource accessible are nothing short of game-changing. In fact, we continue to learn as we progress in this play, and it is vital that we understand and embrace the opportune circumstances that shale resources provide. U.S. policymakers should not get diverted from the real opportunities that responsible development of our domestic shale resources present.”
Download the Baker Institute study HERE.