The "Shale Gale" Goes Global with Discoveries in Argentina and China, "Peak Oil" Losing Relevance

1. Peak Oil Debate Losing Relevance Due to New Upstream Technology -- "The debate over whether the world's reserves of hydrocarbons have now peaked and are in decline has lost relevance over recent years as new technology allows oil companies to find and exploit new hydrocarbon sources, the CEO of Repsol Antonio Brufau said today.

Brufau said progress made in exploring and developing ultra-deepwater areas, unconventional oil and gas sources and the move into remote areas such as the Arctic, have been key to growing global reserves of oil and gas. "The speed at which technology changes and its consequences have taken us largely by surprise. The peak oil debate has lost a great deal of its relevance in the past three years," Brufau told the World Petroleum Congress in Doha. 

Repsol continued to more than replace its proven oil and gas reserves outside Argentina this year and will accelerate output from 2015 onwards as it converts contingent resources into proven reserves. Brufau pointed to developments in the U.S. shale gas industry and highlighted Repsol's own plans to develop a huge shale oil and gas area in Argentina. The Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas discovery in Argentina covers nearly 1 billion equivalent barrels of recoverable shale oil."

2.  Shell Strikes Shale Gas in China -- "Royal Dutch Shell has found shale gas in China, a development that could cap imports in a market natural gas producers are hoping will drive demand.  An official with Shell's partner, PetroChina, a unit of the country's top energy group, state-owned CNPC, said drilling results from two wells Shell drilled had been positive.

"Shell has two vertical wells and they got very good primary production," Professor Yuzhang Liu, Vice president of Petrochina's Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), said in an interview at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha. "It's good news for shale gas," said Liu. China currently has no commercial shale gas production."

HT: Mike W.