Frack Whom?

One thing that amazes me, is how cheap natural gas is pure BTU nowadays. CNG is less than a dollar per GGE (gasoline gallon equivalent). I'd love to convert my diesel to run 50% CNG.

per, not pure

Natural gas rush? Not!! I live in the center of the biggest natural gas field in Canada, and it's a virtual recession right now. No rigs, no pipeliners, no seismic. There's no natural gas rush, there's an investment rush. The Bakken play is an investor's dream. Shale gas is the most expensive form of energy in North America, and gas prices are in the tank. How do you explain the fact investors are flocking to shale gas operators? I think it's an effective sales pitch by investment firms, and operators.

Fracking has been standard procedure in Alberta for many decades. The Wall St. Journal article pretty well sums it up. The sand they use might pose a health risk if you breath the dust, but other than that, it's a fairly clean process. There was one case in Wyoming of contaminated drinking water, and that was due to poor local regulation. It would take multiple errors to contaminate drinking water. In Alberta, it's common practise to test water wells before and after drilling. Seismic activity seems to pose the most risk to water wells, because it's a shallow activity. Deep drilling rarely communicates with shallow zones.

coach the alta gov kicked drilling out. we in sask love that. all your rigs are here. good for us not so much for you. i did frack at brooks40 years ago it is not new. i think brooks is still there. hope the us never lets them frack at all. more gas for us to sell.

The president of the US has been quoted as saying that under his 'plan' "prices of fuel would necessarily sky rocket". Mr. 0 and his pals do not want prosperity for any old Joe citizen; the 'plan' is to reduce all citizens to a collective category designated as dependant peons (state slaves). There are many in the dark corridors of power in Canada who support the 0's 'plan'; we should be asking why the natural gas reserves are not being used to provide cheap fuel for our nation so that 'we, the people' prosper, not 'they' the Bolshevik elites who would empower themselves by impoverishing all independent citizens. All left wingers have a dream of a great depression, they want to smash the people in the face for opposing the dictates of the the World Gument elitists (see Kate's videos of Mr. Moncton). The smoking ban Nazis/Bolsheviks are a very good example of this lust for power over individual freedom of choice. The elites won that first round.....

a@c >

Alberta's picking up again now that the Wild Rose Party's popularity has pistol whipped Stalmechs sheepish Liberals in Conservative clothing back in line.

You may want to hop onto one of those rigs as they make their way home.

Why did Obama give 2 billion dollars to the Brazilian government to facilitate off-shore oil exploration and drilling? Why did he promise that America would be Brazil's best customer for its oil? Why, at the same time, is he doing his best to frustrate, block and litigate against the development of domestic U.S. energy sources?

This is all part of the full court press of the American left to impoverish the middle classes and bring this country to its knees. These people are swine.

Obama only cares about one thing. Destroying America , as he see's it there the Worlds problem.
Not Islam, not Marxism, Not the degeneration of civilization.
No its the USA that is the Worlds cancer. He says it every time he bows to tyrrants, every decision ,every appointment made.
The Airports sybolise his commitment to debase Americans.
His contant running down of Americans in every speech should have warned folks long ago to this CooKoo egg.

What Mystery Meat said.

Well the New York Times article certainly has me convinced. From here on in I'm not trusting anything whatsoever coming from those eeeevil oil companies. I'm going to fill up my gas tank with all natural olive oil and sheep manure and run it on that. I expect all true environmentalists to do the same.

Death to the Green Wreckers!

a@c- You are partly correct, Sask. is doing very well, but the vast majority of the rig inventory is still in AB. Sask is experiencing the same slow down of gas drilling as AB. There's very little activity in any shallow gas field, in either province. The main activities are in heavy oil(Lloydminster), shale(Estevan), and the Shaunavon field. The rigs are going to go where the resources are, when the price is right. Politics are only an annoyance.

With prices for natural gas so low, with supplies so plentiful, can we be surprised exploration is slow these days?

Have to go the CNG route & export to markets where prices are higher.

It goes without saying that Nova Scotia socialists and their dedicated eco-hippies are ardent NY Times readers and idiots.

The front page article in today's paper featured the lopsided story of how a self-appointed "expert" reports that fracking will ruin the Nova Scotia economy. Allowing fracking in NS will also bring about social and development problems like those in Fort McMurry. Gee, doesn't Fort Mac have more maritimers living and working there than in any industry in Atlantic Canada.

Surprisingly these huxters and Chicken Littles even bring out the flaming dringing water trick but conveniently leave out that that was a naturally occurring phenomenon that dates back a century.

This province is a place where it is easier to ask for government help than to do a job by themselves. Natural gas has been pumping from offshore and Cape Sable islands but residential distribution infrastructure is basically non- existent. They ship it to Maine and leave us to put up with outrageous energy costs and raises to build ugly windmills and put a 50 million turdbine into the Fundy that broke and they lost for awhile.

Name three industries the hippies said will be effected are precisely the industries that need and rely on energy. Shipping and fishing may be more fun to historian by sailing Bluenoses, but I doubt many folks could make it here to spend tourist dollars for if they can't afford the gas to drive, bus or fly.

Allan: conversion to 100% cng is about $5000 for an f150. If you drive more than 30000 km it likely makes good economic sense. You can buy a compressor that turns your houses gasline into a filling station (3hrs to fill-up).

Encana is already in the process of building filling stations along the QE2 btwn cgy and EDM so, for some of us this may be a very practical option fairly soon...

PS - CNG/LNG fueled engines last almost indefinitely compared to gas or diesel.

Early eighties you could spec a factory order straight six F150 with a special head for LNG or CNG. Maybe you still can. Not as good as a regular gas engine though, they were a little shy on torque.

"in some cases cost more to drill and operate than the gas they produce is worth"
DUH... and so the good wells pay for some of the uneconomic wells. Did you also notice the NYT mentioned subsidize more than once?

Ah well, I understood that the price of natural gas dropped because the Barnett Shale play and other shale gas plays were so successful that supply overshot demand. Mere rumour and hype will not keep prices so low for so long, though the recession has reduced demand.
Of course rapid decline of production rates occurs in the first months after a well is fracked, this happens with oil from the Bakken, too - rapid production declines. Producing companies are obliged to keep drilling to maintain or grow production. The month-to-month declines tend to level off as time goes by, but most wells continue to decline until they are uneconomical to operate. This may take many years, though some wells never do pay out the initial investment.

Yes, there is hype, and probably some exaggeration, but engineering companies hired to book reserves are quite conservative, and will tend not to declare reserves proven without having production histories of a few years. New techniques require a leap of faith, rewarding or punishing the people who put their money in.

I think shale gas has the potential to reform America; relatively low-cost gas will power industry and a growing fleet of CNG vehicles, and will employ thousands in drilling, oilfield supply and services and pipeline construction.
Fair and competent regulation and oversight will ensure wells do not contaminate potable ground or surface water (this is where I think most of the hype is focused - from the ones who want to make America small).

Am I the only one who recognizes the same pattern here that is,oh so very, evident in the anti-Palin media campaign.

It is not surprising that the NYT is the prime propagator of this misinformation agenda.

Those behind this fear the prospect of cheap, plentiful shale gas/oil, much like they fear Sarah Palin.....for the same reasons...the Cloward/Piven stategy on steroids.

Same old propaganda battle. Lefty saboteurs on one side, Conservatives spouting facts on the other. Guess who's going to win this?

Uncle Meat above is 100% on the money. Facts do not count for sh1t these days my friends. That is because the DemocRat Party and Obama are not really socialists any more, they are SABOTEURS.

If we approach them as such, as in with a baseball bat, then I think we will have much better success.