Free Republic

SWEETWATER — U.S. oil production for the week ending Aug. 30 averaged 7.62 million barrels per day, which is the highest weekly output of crude oil in the nation since Oct. 1989. That increase is almost exclusively because of increases in domestic shale oil production in states such as Texas. The vast majority in a packed room at the Nolan County Coliseum nodded their heads in a gesture of pride to that news, delivered directly by Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. She spoke about the robust energy industry in the state during the Shale Show in Sweetwater this past week....

The Cline Shale is huge, liquids-rich and deliciously sweet The Barnett Shale? That’s so last week. The Eagle Ford? Been there, done that. Not that there’s anything wrong with these two fields in Texas, of course. It’s just that much of their initial “boom” has already come to pass. Now they’re just about churning out steady and rising production. For many E&P firms — and investors — finding the field in its “boom” phase is key to getting amazing growth and portfolio returns. Luckily, a little-known field in West Texas could be the next hot ticket for energy producers —...

The US shale boom has led some to predict that it will overtake Saudi Arabia as world’s largest oil and gas producer by 2020, thanks to the massive reserves found in plays such as the Bakken Shale of North Dakota, the Marcellus Shale in New York, and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas; even the newly discovered Tuscaloosa Shale formation in Louisiana holds large potential. However there is a new shale formation that has been discovered in West Texas which could dwarf all others being drilled in the US at the moment. The play is known as the Cline Shale...