A new data-file from Thunder Said Energy puts numbers on a question that matters for long-term USLNG supply: how much of the world’s shale resource base has actually been produced? The answer, across more than 20 basins, is not much. 11% of U.S. shale resources have been produced overall, but the picture varies sharply by basin. The Bakken and Eagle Ford are now as mature as Norway’s offshore fields. The Permian’s resource-to-production ratio exceeds 100 years, and there is an entire Marcellus-equivalent of Paleozoic gas still untouched beneath the Wolfcamp. Canada’s Montney and Duvernay have produced just 3% of their estimated resources, with more than 1,000 TCF of gas potentially available for export to Asia. The analyst’s closing observation is pointed: Europe remains the only region that has chosen to ban shale development, and instead pays the world’s highest gas import prices to compensate.

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