Why?
Due to the American glut of natural gas. I do not recall RBN Energy talking about this, but I could have missed it.
The pinch illustrates how the global supply balance was
rocked by advanced extraction techniques that have buyers in the
U.S. paying about one-eighth the price Asian nations are charged
for gas. At the same time, nations like Mexico that link prices
to the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark are seeing rapid demand growth
compared with Europe, where most rates are tied to oil.
There are so many story lines here, not limited to:
- energy focus moving from Mideast to North America
- cheap energy in North America could spur industrial development, if ...
- cheap energy in North America vs very expensive energy in Europe, just as the Euro implodes
- renewable energy costs in Europe
But the story line I like best:
- how the global supply balance has been rocked by advanced extraction techniques
... extraction techniques that have been developed in the Bakken laboratory. I have said many, many times, there are two stories in the Bakken: a) the actual production; and, b) how the business climate and the technology have come together to show the world how it can be done. I think back to Snopes, et al, years ago, suggesting that the Bakken was over-hyped.
Why can't these advanced recovery techniques be used in the middle east ?
ReplyDelete1. Different kinds of reservoirs.
ReplyDelete2. Saudi Arabia is already using water injection.
Qatar has enormous amounts of nat gas, so advanced techniques aren't needed there.
ReplyDeleteSaudis pay pennies at the pump and use oil for desalinization (they are installing solar for part of that), so its not like the Middle East oil is consumed at the world price.
Qatar's export levels of LNG effectively sets the Asian price. They want and need the price to be high (to help pay for the new cities, rail, airports, and climate controlled extravagant stadiums they are planning for an upcoming World Cup).
Much better reply/response, thank you. I was think of crude oil when talking about water injection/Saudi Arabia. My bad.
ReplyDelete