Ha ha... I wasn't being snide about reading the article, sorry if I offended your sensibilities.
Yes, I actually read the article, you linked, very carefully last night in the paper edition of the WSJ. That particular gusher in the Anadarko may help Aubrey McClendon pay down some of the massive debt he's accumulated. Mr. McClendon is quite famous for selling real estate in a continued effort to shed debt. In 2010 he sold CNOOC 200,000 acres of Chesapeake's Eagle Ford real estate and continues to sell other US assets to overseas buyers.
Many of the shale players, including Boone Pickens, have shifted their drilling efforts to oil because it is more profitable than gas at the present time, although in the last several weeks the spread between the two has narrowed considerably. This narrowing spread will pose a conundrum for the majors as they decide where to invest their well drilling budgets.
On the export side Cheniere, like I mentioned before, got in under the wire and has all the permits and financing to start the build-out of phase 1 of their liquefaction plant in Sabine. I suspect that the Sierra Club will have a tough time denying exports of NatGas to China, especially since they own the shale acreage and hold so much of our debt.
Of course drilling an oil well generally releases natural gas which will have to be flared (becoming more taboo) or consumed on-site. What better solution than Capstone? If the wells are in remote locations far from the grid it makes even more sense as those wells will still require an energy infrastructure to operate. This bodes well for Capstone IMHO.
One other point the SC seems to be missing is that as the price of gas rises, which they want, the spread between natural gas and coal will narrow (oil is plummeting at the moment) which may cause the power production industry to either continue to burn coal or shift back to it. Their logic seems a tad out of touch with energy reality as we know of it today.
Finally, I personally hope to see continued domestic drilling in both the oil and gas industry. I would like to see more of the product stay at home, but like any commodity it will flow to the highest bidder.
