Of the $317 billion worth of oil and gas deals struck in 2011, $66 billion were shale-related transactions, up from $55 billion the year before. That trend is set to continue, and at the expense of investment in traditional renewables, says Ernst & Young’s Asia-Pacific Oil & Gas Leader Sanjeev Gupta.

The 2012 year has already started off strongly for shale, with China Petrochemical Corp. or Sinopec, making its first entry into the U.S. shale market through a $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy Corp.

France’s Total SA also paid $2.3 billion for a stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s shale fields in Ohio. On Friday, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., PetroChina Co., said it had bought a 20% stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s shale asset in Canada for undisclosed terms.

Despite all the attention surrounding the shale craze in North America, it’s China that has the world’s largest shale reserves, or 19% of global resources, according to Ernst & Young. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimate China’s shale reserves to be as much as 1,275 trillion cubic feet, more than the agency’s combined estimates for the volumes in the U.S. and Canada.

“If the potential in this asset base can be unlocked, this could transform the oil and gas landscape in years to come,” said Ernst & Young. That could be many years away as China doesn’t have the technology to exploit its own reserves yet, particularly as much of China’s deposits are located on hostile terrain. But every foreign deal China does brings it closer to acquiring that technology and using it at home, so that it becomes less dependent on foreign energy sources.

This post by Isabella Steger originally appeared in the WSJ

Senior representatives from SWN Resources Canada, Corridor Resources and Contact Exploration wrote in separate opinion articles for CBC News that they believe the province could prosper if the shale gas industry moves forward.

But each company also continued to pledge to safeguard the environment. The industry and the provincial government have been confronted in recent months by mounting opposition to the shale gas industry and, specifically, to the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing or hydro-fracking.

Tom Alexander, the general manager of SWN Resources Canada in New Brunswick, told an industry group those early results indicate that gas may be widespread in New Brunswick.

Alexander also underscored his company’s commitment to the environment

He said citizens do not need to select between two binary options, choosing the environment or siding with industry.

The company official said “properly constructed and managed” wells do not pose safety or environmental risks.

“Our commitment to safe and environmentally conscious operations in New Brunswick reflects the operating philosophy throughout our company: If we cannot do what we do in a safe and environmentally responsible way, we simply will not do it,” he said.

To read the entire CBC article, please click HERE

Geologic differences among the regions mean what works in one state might not work in another, stressed Jack Williams, president of XTO Energy, the natural gas producer purchased by Exxon Mobil last year. For instance, in Arkansas and Texas, natural gas developers are finding ways to inject the water they use back into the ground – something that generally can’t be done in a different shale formation in the Northeast.

Read the entire story from the Houston Chronicle

In the last twelve months, “there have been six deals targeting unconventional US reserves…worth a whopping $52 billion” writes Vincent Fernando for Business Insider.

Deloitte’s Oil & Gas Mergers and Acquisitions Report For Mid-Year 2010 emphasizes that less than a decade ago “onshore North American exploration and production business looked like it was in permanent decline. Now it’s powering oil industry M&A. Buyers from around the world – France, Korea, India and the UK to name a few – are seeking to acquire the expertise to go after unconventional reserves.”

China and Japan are the latest foreign investors in the US shale fields, and are mostly picking up minority stakes to learn the ins-and-outs of the shale industry in order to import the technology and technical savvy back to their own countries to exploit this booming resource.

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Alasdair Cross, who is also Producer of the BBC Radio 4 show “Costing The Earth,” says that despite concerns about the environmental impacts of shale gas drilling.

“Shale gas seems to answer the oil industry’s desire for an accessible energy source perfectly just as other sources are becoming more problematic,” he writes.

After becoming a booming industry in the US, shale has spawned worldwide interest and has been showing numerous benefits.

“Shale gas exists in large quantities and promising sources lie close to many big energy-intensive cities,” the article says. “In terms of electricity production it is a cleaner power source than coal or oil, and new horizontal drilling techniques are making it easier to reach.”

Shale gas may already account for more than 10% of US natural gas production and analysts project that could rise to 50% within 20 years.

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Representatives from Armenia, Bulgaria, China, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lithuania, Morrocco, Poland, Romania, South Africa, and Ukraine arrived in Williamsport, PA Tuesday to learn about shale gas development.

“Other countries want to develop their own shale gas deposits, but lack the experience needed to do it safe and efficiently,” David Goldwyn, coordinator for the State Department’s office on Internal Energy Affairs told the Sun Gazette. “The conference was held so we could teach them what they need to know.”

The delegates attended a luncheon hosted by Texas-based Chief Oil and Gas and then went on a bus tour of Chief gas operations in the eastern part of Lycoming County. The tour was moderated by company communications specialist Daria Fish, who attendees barraged with questions about shale gas development, including seismic testing, regulations, leases, landowner issues, pipelines and the financial viability of shale gas development, according to the paper.

“I think shale gas will be the future of energy in the world,” said Bahjat S. Aladwan, president of the Jordanian Geologists Association and Arab Geologists Union.

Aladwan said the technology needed to develop shale gas is new to his country, about half of which is over a shale deposit.

“I’m hoping we’ll be successful in producing that gas,” he told the Sun Gazette. “At the same time we are looking for support and help from the USA to develop the shale.”

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Compared to the rest of Texas, Dallas has not jumped on the shale gas boom as quickly as other cities, mostly because experts say there is less gas in Dallas than in other parts of the Barnett Shale.

But that’s not stopping the city from extracting what resources they have in order to boost the economy. Leasing city-owned land to gas companies has already brought Dallas $34.9 million without even one well being drilled, an article in The Dallas Morning News reports. On top of that, the city will get 25 per cent of the proceeds once gas starts flowing.

And that money can make its way to the everyday citizen.

When a whole neighborhood agrees to drilling, the 25 percent is divided among all homeowners who signed, the paper says.

Currently, Dallas has 25 operating wells, though 78 permits for exploration are valid throughout the county.

Companies like Trinity East and XTO are waiting on the city to approve their permits so they can begin drilling.

Though shale drilling is heavily regulated, some of the hold up is stemming from the environmental concerns which have been highly touted in other shale plays across the country.

“We know the gas is there; we know the city needs the gas for the revenue,” says Raymond Crawford, an artist who has organized residents groups to monitor gas drilling in Dallas. “But there’s a lot of loose ends that continually come unraveled and need to be wrapped up.”

Large-scale protests, however, seem unlikely according to the Dallas Morning News. The city’s first prospective well is located on an old Navy base that is 1,000 feet from the nearest homes, far beyond the 300-foot minimum protection zone the city established.

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This is a great video that describes how horizontal drilling and fracking work:

In the last year alone, shale gas has made major advancements in becoming a viable option for a new energy source in the US. Companies, investors and governments alike have been exploring shale’s potential.

From ExxonMobil‘s $41 billion acquisition of shale specialist XTO Energy, to international investment in the US shale plays by Reliance Industries, to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. – a private equity firm – dropping $400 million in a joint venture with Hilcorp Energy to develop the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, to the Obama administration announcing the “US-China Shale Gas Resource Initative,” the reality of shale is quickly setting in across America.

With BP‘s disastrous oil spill taking center stage over the past month and highlighting the very real dangers and consequences of relying on crude oil, the article suggests shale gas will unquestionable come to light not only as a “sexy” alternative, but also as a very serious game changer for the energy sector:

“The combination of the oil spill and the Masey coal accident should further shine a light on gas. The administration HAS to think more about about incentivizing use of clean, available, domestic natural gas, given the identification of massive shale resources in recent years.”

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