In the past ten months alone, some sixteen hundred new wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania; it is projected that the total number in the state could eventually grow to more than a hundred thousand. Nationally, shale-gas production has increased by a factor of twelve in the past ten years.
This production boom may have something to do with low current gas prices. It is also worth remembering these statistics when analyzing projections from sponsors offering gas programs.
2 comments:
Your link is broken, the correct one is: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/12/05/111205taco_talk_kolbert
Interesting article though. I don't know which direction to run - pouring money into a well or avoiding it altogether. Frankly the tax benefits alone (at least for now) make small investments in direct drilling worthwhile for me. I think the ecological impact and groundwater contamination issues are not as bad as they would have you believe, and most of the "expert" opinions support that. My impression of the operators, at least in recent times, is that they are behaving appropriately and ethically. That being said, legislative risks could still crush investors on these deals.
Thanks for letting me know. It should be correct now.
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