Bursting a Gas Bubble?

According to a recent article in the New York Times, numerous officials in the natural gas industry have expressed doubts about the financial viability of the industry’s recent shale gas boom. Studying hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents from energy executives, lawyers, geologists, and market analysts, the article quotes several experts who call shale gas “inherently unprofitable,” comparing it to the dot-com investment bubble and “giant Ponzi schemes.” The article’s author also looked at data from over 9,000 shale gas wells and found that less than 10% had recouped their costs over their first seven years.