I thought this might interest you if you have not seen it.
"With Gas so Cheap and Well Drilling Down, Why is Gas Production so High?
With Gas So Cheap and Well Drilling Down, Why is Gas Production so High? Posted by Euan Mearns on January 26, 2012 - 9:20am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: fracking, natural gas prices, natural gas production, shale gas plays [ list all tags]
This is a guest post by David Hughes, a geoscientist, president of a consultancy dedicated to research on energy and sustainability issues, and a fellow of Post Carbon Institute, on whose website this article first appeared.
Natural gas prices have declined to below $3.00/mcf, levels not seen for years, yet the EIA posted the highest gas production ever in October, 2011. U.S. gas production is growing despite annual well completion rates that are half that at the peak of the drilling boom in 2008, when gas price topped $12.00/mcf. Proponents of shale gas as a “game changer” suggest that, despite the well-known high decline rates of shale gas wells, their productivity is sufficient to grow production with far fewer wells at historically low prices. Others, such as Arthur Berman, claim that shale gas plays require much higher prices to be economic. The answer may lie in the gas produced in association with oil drilling, which is near all time historical highs. "
I do not know the answer to that question. One would have to look at the productivity of newly discovered wells and gas fields that have finally come on line. There is a considerable lag time between discovery and production, a relationship independent of drilling activity.
