This is what the Russian government thinks, as it whistles by the graveyard.
Now, being outspent on the infrastructure side could have several causes. One, the US is simply better at fracking. Two, the US is more efficient in building what it needs. Three, the US is (still, yet?) less corrupt than the other countries, keeping our costs lower.
Now, the US is unique in that private property owners have mineral rights. So, it's easier to get approvals to drill, frack, etc., because the locals have skin in the game. There's zillions of cubic feet of gas and oil on the table, because the Federal Government is stopping drilling on Federal lands in order to meet the Greenies religious obligation of hating fossil fuels, development, prosperity and civilization. This also links up the Obama's goal of weakening America.
That’s what I was wondering after watching that fracking video above...seems like it would be awfully expensive to extract.
Shakeout threatens shale patch as frackers go for broke
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/05/27/shakeout-threatens-shale-patch-as-frackers-go-for-broke/
May 27, 2014
The U.S. shale patch is facing a shakeout as drillers struggle to keep pace with the relentless spending needed to get oil and gas out of the ground.
Shale debt has almost doubled over the last four years while revenue has gained just 5.6 percent, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of 61 shale drillers. A dozen of those wildcatters are spending at least 10 percent of their sales on interest compared with Exxon Mobil Corp.’s 0.1 percent.
“The list of companies that are financially stressed is considerable,” said Benjamin Dell, managing partner of Kimmeridge Energy, a New York-based alternative asset manager focused on energy. “Not everyone is going to survive. We’ve seen it before.”
Some investors are already bailing out. On May 23, Loews Corp. (L), the holding company run byNew York’s Tisch family, said it is weighing the sale of HighMount Exploration & Production LLC, its oil and natural gas subsidiary, at a loss.
HighMount lost $20 million in the first three months of the year, after being unprofitable in 2013 and 2012, Loews said it its financial reports. As with much of the industry, HighMount has shifted its focus to oil after natural gas prices plunged and has struggled to find sites worth developing, company records show.
Mary Skafidas, a spokeswoman for Loews, declined comment.
In a measure of the shale industry’s financial burden, debt hit $163.6 billion in the first quarter, according to company records compiled by Bloomberg on 61 exploration and productioncompanies that target oil and natural gas trapped in deep underground layers of rock. And companies including Forest Oil Corp. (FST), Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (GDP) andQuicksilver Resources Inc. (KWK) racked up interest expense of more than 20 percent.
Production declines
Quicksilver acknowledges the company is over-leveraged, said David Erdman, a spokesman for Quicksilver. The company’s interest expense equaled almost 45 percent of revenue in the first quarter. “We have taken concrete measures to reduce debt,” he said.
Drillers are caught in a bind. They must keep borrowing to pay for exploration needed to offset the steep production declines typical of shale wells. At the same time, investors have been pushing companies to cut back. Spending tumbled at 26 of the 61 firms examined. For companies that can’t afford to keep drilling, less oil coming out means less money coming in, accelerating the financial tailspin.
More at link...