Hart Energy: Growing Reliance on Gas Imports Likely to Encourage Shale Developments Worldwide

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Feb 22, 2011, 06:00 ET

HOUSTON, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Abundant shale gas reserves, conservatively estimated at 20 trillion cubic feet worldwide, are in play throughout Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, with tremendous potential for production, a recently released report by Hart Energy reveals.

The successful exploitation of U.S. shale gas (production could reach 16 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2011) has created opportunities to export American technology and expertise. The bulk of the world's proven conventional natural gas reserves is concentrated in three countries - Russia, Iran and Qatar. As a result, "in Latin America and Asia, increasing demand is requiring imports to be secured at high prices," said Laura Atkins, Hart Energy's Director of Petroleum Research and the study's principal author. "Growing reliance on imports creates energy security concerns that can be alleviated by domestic shale gas production."

Commercial shale gas production, a "game changer" in North America, is still in a very early stage in other countries but has the potential to profoundly alter the world's energy landscape. Hart Energy's newly released Global Shale Gas Study covers more than 160 shale gas plays across five continents with analysis from both technological and commercial perspectives. Clients will learn about basin geology and shale properties, as well as lessons gleaned from North American plays including technologies, costs and efficiencies, decline patterns, economics, and sensitivities to price, costs and fiscal terms.

The Global Shale Gas Study explains the necessary characteristics for a viable shale-gas play, including data requirements and analytical methodologies which will result in highly accurate predictions of well production rates, as well as ultimate recovery with power law decline curves. It identifies "hot" shale plays likely to emerge and why, inactive plays that offer the potential for future gain, and where unconventional shale gas can and cannot compete with conventional gas.

In addition to Atkins, a veteran of more than 20 years in the upstream oil and gas industry, contributions to the Global Shale Gas Study were made by Opoku Danquah, Hart Energy's Director of Upstream Research; and Peggy Williams, Hart Energy's Director of Unconventional Resources.

More information on the study findings, methodology and geographical coverage is available by contacting Laura Atkins, Director of Petroleum Research, at +1.713.260.6476 or [email protected], or by visiting the Web site.

The Global Shale Gas Study is published by Hart Energy Research, a division of Hart Energy. Hart Energy provides specialized data/information products and member-only services to targeted audiences worldwide and ranks among the leading providers of news, data and analysis for the global energy industry. Its core publishing and consulting expertise has been extended to online products (databases, maps) and services (Web sites, market information) as well as industry conferences and exhibitions. Hart Energy clients derive from the energy industry, the financial and investment community, engineering and automotive industries, utilities, leading NGOs and the world's major governments.