Pipeline Firms Widen Natural-Gas Networks

[phantom power]

My dad has been consulting with a drilling consortium to set up training programs at western NY community colleges and trade schools to provide a labor force to exploit these formations. The recent collapse in NG prices has thrown everybody's level of motivation into doubt. Environmental concerns seem to center around the millions of gallons of water required to frak these formations. About 40% ends up back on the surface and has to be disposed of.

A profound geographic shift in U.S. natural-gas drilling is leading pipeline companies to expand into new territories, even as prices for the fuel appear stuck in a lengthy slump.

A few years ago, pipeline companies were focused on moving plentiful natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to hungry Northeastern markets. Today's challenge is building enough infrastructure to handle the flood of gas now being pumped out of shale-rock formations in Appalachia and the Southeast.

Thanks to improved drilling techniques these shale wells are producing giant volumes early in their lives, relatively cheaply, giving producers faster returns on their investments.

The shift in opportunities is stark: As natural-gas prices fell roughly a one-third from January to early July, gas drilling dropped 79% in the Permian Basin in Texas and 57% in the Rockies by rig count, according to Barclays Capital. Yet during the same period, rig counts were at a record high in the Marcellus Shale natural-gas field around Pennsylvania, and had declined just 2% year-to-date in Louisiana's Haynesville Shale formation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124874360231085543.html

[Iterate]

1. I'm wondering if the same skills and training

involved in drilling and high pressure fracture might not translate (and be better applied) to enhanced geothermal.