Biggest Story of the Day? Apache

Link here to Rigzone.com.

Data points (some numbers rounded)

• huge shift to oil
• currently producing 770,000 bbls of oil equivalent/day
• shooting for 1 million bbls by 2016
• has quietly been accumulating acreage for the past 2.5 years; now ready to develop it
• 300,000 acres in Daniels County, Montana; part of the Williston Basin Bakken; not de-risked
• 580,000 acres in the emerging Mississippi Lime in the central US (particularly Kansas)
• has a central natural gas position in Liard Basin where the company has drilled what is perhaps the most prolific gas well ever drilled in North America 

Not just the most prolific for Apache, but the most prolific ever drilled in North America.

.... that single well from 2009, which produced 21 million cubic feet per day during its first month, after being “fracked” – a technique used to free shale gas – six times. In other shale gas reservoirs, companies use 18 fracks – and more – to cause even more gas to flow.

The overall estimates are early, and geologists cautioned against placing too much stock in numbers generated from relatively scant data. And though Apache said it believes wells in the Liard could be profitable at a well-head price of $2.57 (U.S.) per thousand cubic feet – not far from the current price of natural gas in the central U.S. – others said those predictions could prove optimistic. A single Liard well costs $35-million to drill and complete.

Now if the folks in Washington would just recognize the new North American reality in energy, perhaps they could turn the economy around.

That's not political; that's reality.

By the way, 21 million cubic feet of natural gas equates to 3,500 bbls of oil -- that's 3,500 bbls of oil per day for the first month, i.e., 105,000 bbls the first month.

Peak oil? What peak oil.