Forbes: Peak Shale Gas Proves As Wrong As Peak Oil

Since the beginning of the shale gas boom, there have been skeptics and uncertainties, which is hardly surprising for a new type of production. How much could be recovered, what were the costs, could processes be transferred from one shale to another, and especially, what impact would high production decline rates have. Quite a bit of analysis has been done by any number of companies and scholars (broadly speaking), and many of the worries have been dismissed, not least because of continuing increases in production and an apparent ceiling on prices near $5/Mcf.

Some continue to sound alarms, however, and it seems worth revisiting them. For one thing, shale gas was described as a “bubble,” which, after the 2008 financial collapse, causes some fear and trembling on Wall Street. Stories of high debt levels and companies selling off leases and reserves have provided some ammunition to such claims. Analysts like Arthur Berman and Bill Powers have made particularly apocalyptic projections.
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