Biotech Values

[OakesCS]

OT] Re: Natural-Gas Production Goes from Bust to Boom

Granted that making synthetic oil from kerogen is uneconomic, but do you agree with the WSJ article I posted that mining natural gas from shale is a big deal?

yeah, gas shales are a huge deal. the wsj article was right on target. But just to be clear, oil shales and gas shales are very different beasts. Oil shales really aren't shales (they are mostly carbonate) and the organic matter in them is not 'mature' but when heated produces a high quality crude oil. Gas shales are composed of silicate clays with natural gas adsorbed on the mineral surfaces and in micropores. Fracture the shales to open the permeability and the gas desorbs. The process of fracturing and producing gas shales is primitive and cheap and the shales are extensive so there are a lot of 'mom and pop' companies involved. At the moment gas shale wells tend to produce at very high rates initially and then drop off very rapidly. That is a drawback that we non-mom and pop sorts are trying to fix and use as a means of getting back marketshare.