Surge in production of oil and gas for years to come

Fuel Fix:
Eagle Ford Shale production will jump 50 percent this year, hitting an average 844,000 barrels per day, according to an analysis by research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

And despite slumping natural gas prices, the northeast United States will double gas production by 2020, the researchers forecast.

In the report on North America energy production released Friday, Wood Mackenzie projects a healthy future for United States energy, with rapid growth led by tight oil, including oil from the Eagle Ford and other shale rock formations.

Even U.S. natural gas has a promising future, the researchers determined, finding that all current gas drilling in the United States is economic at prices above $4 per million British thermal units. U.S. gas closed Monday at $3.46.

“The Northeast shales have not experienced sharp gas drilling reductions due to low cost of development,” the report noted.

Wood Mackenzie estimates that $150 billion will be spent this year on developing onshore North American oil and natural gas. Tight oil will account for more than 40 percent of that spending, the firm found.

That heavy investment will push tight oil production to more than 5 million barrels per day by 2019, with more than half of those barrels coming from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Montana.

The Wolfcamp and Cline Shale in West Texas is an up and comer, the researchers said, with its oil production forecasted to jump 76 percent by 2018. The Wolfcamp and Cline play, currently the source up 7 percent of production from the Permian Basin, will double its share over the next 5 years, Wood Mackenzie projects.
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I think their estimate of the Wolfcamp Cline production is very conservative.  The depth and breath of the formation is significantly larger than that of the Eagle Ford.  If the Keystone XL were added to the mix we could reach a North American production level that would mean we would not have to import oil from other areas.

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