gas news, page-5

According to Ed Crooks of the Financial Times, credit for the US shale boom should go to small North American independents, “from the midsized companies valued in the tens of billions of dollars down to tiny start-ups” rather than energy giants.

According to the article, “it was Texan oilman George Mitchell and Oklahoma-based Devon Energy that first saw the potential in combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling to extract shale gas, companies such as Chesapeake Energy and Continental Resources that moved quickly to acquire drilling rights on the most promising shales.”

He quotes Herve Wilczynski of consultancy AT Kearney as saying that the factors that usually work for big companies, such as being able to plan ahead, becomes a weakness when it comes to shale plays where companies need to keep revisiting their strategy. “Adaptive planning is what the smaller companies are good at,” he said.


History does seem to be repeating itself in Australia. The Beaches and the Icons of this country who appear to have taken the prime shale areas in the Nappamerri Trough, are also leading the way in Australia (now with one of those giants jumping onto the bandwagon). Reg Nelson and Ray James are highly experienced men and clearly have outfoxed the rest of the field.
Wonder if any other "big companies" are still "planning ahead" in our patch??