aussie oil services, page-4

How would we know what the full lifetime of fractured wells would be when the technique is so new?

"Our engineers here project these wells out to 20-30 years of production and in my mind that has yet to be proven as viable," wrote a geologist at Chesapeake in a March 17 e-mail to a federal energy analyst. "In fact I’m quite skeptical of it myself when you see the % decline in the first year of production."

The above quote is from this article:
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2011/07/how-does-the-shale-gas-scam-work.html

In any case, I don't care about the depletion rates in years four and beyond. Suffice it to say that there is huge depletion in the first three years. And by the way if NWE discovers a standard high-depletion rate shale gas formation, we will do just fine on this investment, and then some.

And as for drilling services firms, I am here to tell you that the guys who are doing horizontal well drilling in North America are ON FIRE. Many of these wells deplete so rapidly that they are constantly putting up new wells and providing incremental horizontal drilling services on existing rigs. Three of my favorites on the Toronto exchange are (using Reuters symbols):

FRC.TO
CFW.TO
TCW.TO

Look at the last earnings reports for these three and you will clearly see that the level of growth for their services is unreal, because the number of wells they put up in a fracking zone is way in excess of what you see in a normal long-lived well.

I foresee a similar development in any area where fractured well techniques end up going into production. I am interested in identifying the Australian based service firms that are the winners from that. I suspect we have 18 months until this becomes an issue, but why not start tracking the candidates now.