A Game Changer
A Game Changer
I've been in the energy business my entire career, and I can assure you this 81-year-old has chased down more deals than anyone you'll ever meet. A lot of those deals didn't pan out - that's just how the game is played - but every now and then a big kahuna comes along. When it does, you'd better jump on it.
Right now, as our country struggles to rebuild its economy and replace millions of lost jobs, that sort of game changer has landed right in our lap: America has more shale gas than it knows what to do with.
Last year, thanks to new drilling technologies, the nation's estimated total gas resources jumped by 35 percent from 1,532 trillion cubic feet to 2,074 trillion cubic feet. I couldn't believe these numbers the first time I heard them; that's enough natural gas to power our country through the 21st century. And as it turned out, that was just the start of the story.
Last week, J.P. Morgan released a report saying that North America doesn't have 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in place. It has 8 trillion cubic feet. That's four times last year's new and improved numbers. This incredible surge in total gas resources will completely reshape the international energy landscape. Domestic natural gas is going to be so plentiful and so cheap that liquefied natural gas carriers from Qatar and the Middle East will stop coming to the U.S. They'll go to India and China instead. We just won't need them anymore.
It's my hope that it's the same story with oil tankers as well. As America shifts from imported diesel to cleaner, cheaper domestic natural gas, our dependence on foreign oil will be drastically reduced. But natural gas can do a lot more than just power our vehicles. It can power our economy and get America back on its feet in ways no other resource can. That's one of the many reasons the Western Governors' Association sent a letter last week to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid urging them to pass legislation that incentivizes the use of natural gas vehicles.
But there's a big if here, and it goes back to what I said earlier. When the big kahuna comes along, if you don't jump on it, you're not going to be around too long. I've been in the energy business for six decades now. And what that really means is that I've drilled more dry holes than anyone you'll ever meet. I'm still in the game though, and that's because I made up a lot of ground - and then some - when the tide turned my way.
America has got to do the same. We've relied on foreign oil for far too long. A game changer has emerged, and we've got to jump on it. If we don't end our country's dangerous dependence on foreign oil by passing the NAT GAS Act in the House (H.R. 1835) and the Senate (S. 1408), I can assure you the tide will go out on us before you know it.
Buck
Views: 45
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by intrepid on -
Unless people demand that this bill gets passed Obama and his administration will let this fall by the wayside. This bill would sail through both houses with very little objection if Obama would just give the go ahead.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on -
T. Boone is late but welcome to an emphasis on nat gas as the best future for national energy policy. He wasted far too much time and political capital on solar and especially wind when he started down this public relations road two years ago. And the president is not the problem or the key to a national energy policy favoring nat gas. It's Congress. And the senators and representatives in the pocket of Big Coal, Big Railroads, Big Utilities, etc. are members of both parties. I suggest that those interested in making their will known contact their elected federal representatives. Regardless of party. I did so two years ago and every six months since.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Natural gas tumbles on large supplies
By CHRIS KAHN (AP) – 7 hours ago
NEW YORK — Natural gas prices tumbled more than 4 percent Thursday after the government said supplies are still higher than average despite a rash of snowstorms that blanketed the East Coast during the past few weeks.
Natural gas is used to both heat homes and power electric generators, and supplies generally drop in the winter as homeowners crank up the heat.
The Energy Information Administration said natural gas stores did fall last week. However the remaining supply of 2.03 trillion cubic feet is still nearly 3 percent higher than the five-year average.
Natural gas lost 23.5 cents at $5.151 per 1,000 cubic feet in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
With the winter more than half over, analyst Stephen Schork said natural gas prices were headed lower.
"We're at the end of the season," he said. "And there's an assumption out there that we have a lot of storage capacity, a lot of untapped wells that could easily be brought online."
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Permalink Reply by LP on
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It is Congress but it's Executive Branch too and not just the current administration. The Coal lobby is powerful and has been for a long time. They are experts at "pocket lining" politics and you can always tell who is in their pocket when interviewed by the media by the way they turn any question regarding natural gas into an immediate discussion about oil and the "virtues" of so called "clean coal".
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Permalink Reply by JHH on
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Mr. Buckner, Thanks for the article... but I don't think our "representatives" in Washington are listening. Partly because there's not enough money flowing into their failing political campaigns and personal bank accounts for them to recognize the current and future potential of natural gas. I can't wait to see those two new nuclear power plants 20-years from now. Sorry for being so negative but it's really distressing. I'm grateful for those who are still fighting the fight. jhh
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Permalink Reply by Jordan A. Reamer on
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The article posted on this page has an error in it; it is not 8 trillion cubic feet of gas in place increase, but 8,000 trillion cubic feet of gas in place in the U.S. At a 30% recovery rate that is 400 hundred billion barrels of oil for the U.S. Let's switch over to natural gas and stop sending our treasure and shedding our blood over seas.
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