More on Energy Abundance

The natural gas story keeps getting better. There's a much better picture of the magnitude of the new discoveries at Oildrum (via Paul Kedrosky):

[Pulled from T Boone Pickens] The 2,074 trillion cubic feet of domestic natural gas reserves cited in the study is the equivalent of nearly 350 billion barrels of oil, about the same as Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

[...] Current U.S. natural gas consumption is 23 trillion scf per year (Source: EIA). Therefore, replacing all gasoline consumption with natural gas would require a total usage of 39.4 trillion scf per year, an increase in natural gas consumption of 71% over present usage. [...] that is enough gas for 53 years of combined current natural gas consumption and gasoline consumption.

It is stunning to realize that only a few years ago, this energy was inaccessible, undiscovered or economical. To top it all off, they're finding this stuff everywhere. From NoHotAir quoting Barclays Capital:

ExxonMobil hopes to participate in that growth through key positions it is building in Canada, the Marcellus Shale of the US, Eastern Europe and Germany, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said Wednesday [...]

There has been no shale gas development in China. However, initial analysis indicates the likelihood of huge reserves. Discovery of commercial quantities would significantly increase availability of hydrocarbons and possibly do much to relieve the global energy crisis. The opportunity to produce shale gas in China is very similar to what has already taken place in the U.S., such as in the highly productive Barnett Shale.