Oh and why do you bring up WTI?? (which has nothing to do with the American Petroleum Institute). It is a benchmark for a type of light sweet crude that underlies the NYMEX’s futures contract. (Other global benchmarks include Brent, Dubai, etc.)
Okay, you actually do understand things.
I mentioned WTI because it is specifically not regional. Meaning all WTI does have to come from West Texas, but you understood that, clearly, indicated from your other comments.
Here’s the thing. I despise talk of “huge amounts” and “a great deal” and “large shipments”. I want to see 30K bpd quoted. I want to see 35% recovery rates, or even 45% recovery rates quoted. I want to see API grades assigned to the *liquid*.
And I very specifically do not want to see 150K barrels of oil equivalent per day. You can’t put oil equivalent into a refinery and get gasoline out.
I am suspicious of Chesapeake’s verbage over the past month celebrating Ohio. You have to dig for hours to find ANYONE who will offer an estimate of BARRELS OF CRUDE PER DAY expected. They’ll tell you about cubic feet per day of gas. They’ll tell you how much liquids may be there. They will not say a word about expected production rate of oil.
Why? Because oil pays for these plays. Shale gas is dying under the relentless weight of inadequate profit. These shale gas plays are paying for themselves with the few hundred barrels of CRUDE per day that come up at $100/barrel. The $4 natgas doesn’t pay for them.
Chesapeake will hype and then shop those leases around. Watch.