The boom in unconventional exploration in North America, mainly in shale gas and coal bed methane is spilling over internationally with Europe, Asia, the Far East, and Australia all claiming huge values for resource potential, many in excess of 400 TCFG. This quest for unconventional gas outside North America is persuading major companies (ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Statoil, etc.) that they need the expertise acquired by US independents (Chesapeake, XTO, Anadarko, Burlington, etc.) to apply the knowledge they have acquired from the San Juan and Powder River basins and the Barnett, Marcellus, Haynesville, etc. plays and the expertise they have developed in drilling and well completion to unleash the potential of international basins and plays. But this stampede across the pond comes with some challenges both in terms of the subsurface and surface. No two basins are the same and the US analogs are unlikely to match the geology of Europe and Asia. At the end of the day, the geology will determine whether the rest of the world can experience the unconventional gas explosion that the US is seeing.

Global Resource Estimates. Courtesy of ConocoPhillips