I am always interested in other countries with shale gas.  Sadly, I think some nations overseas will develop their shale resources before we do. 

This article is about Mexico's shale gas. It's from the website www.naturalgasforamerica.com  Does anyone know anything about them?

http://naturalgasforamerica.com/

Mexico’s Shale Gas Potential Untapped

Mexico’s potential shale gas resources are nearly as big as those in the United States and the state oil company should use new private incentive contracts to exploit them, the oil industry regulator said on Wednesday.

Mexico holds the world’s fourth largest reserve of shale gas — 681 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable resources according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA — just behind China, the United States and Argentina.

But state oil monopoly Pemex has only drilled one exploratory shale gas well and spends a fraction of its budget on developing unconventional sources of fuel, the National Hydrocarbons Commision (CNH) said.

The oil watchdog is pushing for Pemex to draft a plan to strategically develop its natural gas resources.

“The world, and in particular the United States, is making an important turn toward gas and Mexico needs to ask the question: ‘How can we prepare ourselves today to take advantage?’” the commission’s president Juan Carlos Zepeda told Reuters in an interview.

In the United States the boom in shale natural gas drilling has raised hopes the cleaner-burning fuel can meet future energy needs, but concerns about its impact on water quality could slow the industry’s ability to tap the bounty.

Pemex is currently pumping only a small amount of shale gas but is investing 200 million pesos ($15 million) to drill more wells in five different areas in northern Mexico.

The company thinks Mexico has between 150 and 459 tcfs of potential shale gas resources, a slightly more conservative estimate than the EIA.

That figure still far over reaches Mexico’s current proven, probable and possible (3P) natural gas reserves, which are just 61 billion cubic feet, Zepeda said.

Mexico now imports natural gas to meet national demand.

The Commision argues gas could be a viable alternative to oil as Mexico struggles to reverse sliding crude production from its naturally aging fields.

“The giant oil fields are done. Now we are looking to mature fields and deep water (to find more oil), which implies a timeframe of decades with a lot of uncertainty,” said Javier Estrada, another commissioner on the CNH’s five-member board.

“(Pemex) really hasn’t invested the money needed to find gas. It gives more priority to the fields where there is also potential to find light crude,” he said.

Mexican natural gas production is concentrated in the Burgos basin in the northeast of the country and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. In May, Pemex announced a “significant” deepwater gas find but that type of production can be more costly than pumping shale gas, Estrada said.

http://naturalgasforamerica.com/mexico-shale-gas-potential.htm?utm_...