First The Saudis, Now Russia: The Bakken Changes Things

I love it.

First it was the Saudis who admitted the Bakken changed things.

Now, it's the Russians. This is really quite incredible. Talk about tectonic shifts.

The U.S. shale gas boom has not only virtually eliminated the need for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports for at least two decades, but significantly reduced Russia’s influence over the European natural gas market and "diminished the petro-power" of major gas producers in the Middle East and Venezuela.

According to a study by Rice University’s Baker Institute, "Shale Gas and U.S. National Security", U.S. shale gas has substantially reduced Russia’s market share in Europe from 27 percent in 2009 to 13 percent by 2040, reducing the chances that Moscow can use energy as a tool for political gain.

European customers now have an alternative supply to Russian gas in the form of LNG displaced from the U.S. market. The shale boom also has exerted pressure on the status quo by indexing gas sales to a premium marker determined by the price of petroleum products.

Russia already has had to accept lower prices for its gas and is now allowing a portion of its sales in Europe to be indexed to spot gas markets, or regional market hubs, rather than oil prices.

Re-read that; think about all that is packed into those few paragraphs.

Just that first line: "The US shale gas boom has not only virtually eliminated the need for US liquified natural gas imports for at least two decades, but ...." Two decades. And that's with current technology. At current prices.

Of course, the article is about natural gas, and the Bakken is about oil, but, as far as I'm concerned, my myth is that it was the Bakken that provided the laboratory to make all the rest possible.

Be sure to go to the link: the writer does not refer to it as a tectonic shift, rather a "paradigm shift."

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan