Posted on 12/10/2012 7:43:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As the United States starts exporting more of its natural gas, prices will firm, producers will profit, big gas consumers won’t be happy about paying more and opponents of fracking will object.
All that was apparent even before the U.S. Department of Energy released a study on gas exports Wednesday that found, on balance, a net economic benefit for the country.
In North Texas and across the state, however, these conclusions are more tangible to the many businesses and neighborhoods that interact with natural gas formations like the Barnett Shale.
Low prices have dropped drilling in the Barnett, which is centered in Tarrant County, by more than 80 percent over the last four years. Natural gas exports to hungry markets in Asia could rejuvenate Barnett drillers and bring more of Dallas face to face with the consequences.
“Anything that depletes the oversupply of natural gas should improve the price domestically, of course,” said Gene Powell, publisher and editor of Powell Shale Digest in Fort Worth. “We can get triple or more of the [U.S.] price for exports.”
Powell said the number of rigs drilling in the Barnett Shale was 196 a month in 2008, when gas prices were as high as a Las Vegas housing bubble. Last month, the rig count in the Barnett was 36. The price of gas closed Wednesday at $3.41 per million British thermal units, a measure of heat content that is roughly equal to 1,000 cubic feet of gas. That price is just a fourth of the 2008 peak...
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I’ve been saying all along that the talk of fracking and Keystone Pipeline making the USA energy self sufficient has been all hogwash all along.
The oil and gas industry are just like every other global corporation. They do not want the USA to have a manufacturing or economic advantage with cheap energy. They want the gas globalized and sent to China, and they want the profits for international shareholders, while they want our military going off and dying on their behalf.
The USA surviving as a strong sovereign nation is the least of their concern. The conservative movement hopefully some day will wake up to the fact that global corporatism is the antithesis of USA conservatism. There will still be those who attempt to influence the conservative movement but it will be to keep us asleep at the wheel while foreigners plunder us.
Indeed. Good news for conservatives and the economy!
It costs less to ship it in a pipeline then the railroad.
“Good news for people here with mineral rights”
Yessir. And good news for people who own hotels, sell machinery, tools, trucks, houses, cell phones, own restaurants, etc.
Also pretty nice for someone who wants a decent paying career type job in that industry. And it ain’t all truck drivers and roughnecks. Lot’s of office workers get good jobs too.
From the article...’But he said the agency’s latest outlook to 2040 shows natural gas use rising among manufacturers, power companies and trucking firms because of its relative abundance and competitive price.’
In 1812, how many folks were concerned about what would happen in 1840?
In 1912, how many folks were concerned about what would happen in 1940? (Other than those who were planning on the takeover of the US by bankers by establishing the GROSSLY unconstitutional Federal Reserve, of course.)
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