Changer

The natural gas oversupply bubble, driven by gigantic growth in shale gas, could spread around the world, becoming a game changer for almost everyone, according to Jim Duncan, director for market analysis at ConocoPhillips Gas and Power.

The emergence of gas shale plays has been a game-changer for the industry and the outlook for gas supply. The scale of the shales is so great that it threatens the survival of the “individual wildcatter,” who with only a half-dozen employees drilling a few dozen wells a year will find it difficult to compete, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey K. McClendon said last Thursday.

The emergence of gas shale plays has been a game-changer for the industry and the outlook for gas supply. The scale of the shales is so great that it threatens the survival of the “individual wildcatter,” who with only a half-dozen employees drilling a few dozen wells a year will find it difficult to compete, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey K. McClendon said Thursday.

Calling it a potential “game changer,” a hybrid “microhole” coiled tubing rig used on 25 test wells has penetrated a particularly dense Niobrara natural gas chalk formation along the Kansas-Colorado border, the Department of Energy (DOE) said last week. The DOE said the rig delivering 25-35% in cost savings per well and about 1 Tcf of shallow gas that otherwise would have been bypassed by conventional drilling.