As Oil and Gas Prices Plunge, Drilling Frenzy Ends

[IDemo]

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
New York Times
Published: March 14, 2009

FORT WORTH — The great American drilling boom is over.

The number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap new energy supplies across the country has plunged to less than 1,200 from 2,400 last summer, and energy executives say the drop is accelerating further.

Lower prices are bringing to an end an ambitious effort to squeeze more oil from aging fields and to tap new sources of natural gas. For the last four years, companies here drilled below airports, golf courses, churches and playgrounds in a frantic search for energy. They scoured the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Gulf of Mexico and Appalachia.

But the economic downturn has cut into demand. Global oil prices and American natural gas prices have plummeted two-thirds since last summer. Not even an unseasonably cold winter drove down unusually high inventories of natural gas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15drilling.html?_r=1&hp

[Gman]

1. LOL! Drill baby drill!!

Drill here, drill now! LOL!! A nice commercial next year will be to have the GOP congresscritters speaking to a dark chamber during recess demanding to drill here drill now! A month later the market collapsed.

[suston96]

2. What's even more gratifying is that people have started conserving......

...fewer trips to the gas pumps may be a good habit that may/should keep on after the crisis in the economy is past.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. WHAAAAAT?!? No more drill here, drill now ?

Capitalism bites wingnuts, who don't understand it.

[NickB79]

4. Anyone notice this quote?

"Energy experts and company executives warn that oil and gas companies now cutting back on investments will be unable to respond quickly to a future economic recovery. John Richels, Devon’s president, said that if the slump lasted two years, it could then take 18 to 24 months for companies to reassemble rig crews.

That means a glut could rapidly turn to scarcity, sending energy prices soaring again. Already, experts are predicting that lower domestic gas production by the end of the year will require increased imports of liquefied natural gas from places like Qatar."

Uh oh.