“The decline rates are enormous. But Bill is applying conventional oil field metrics to unconventional fields. In a normal field, these kinds of decline rates would mean that the field stinks. We’re drilling so many more wells in the shale that the decline rates don’t matter. Think about the scale. They’re so big people can’t get their heads around it... The only barrier I see right now is political.”

— Matt Badiali

Bill Powers - Editor, Powers Energy Investor 2012 ASPO-USA Conference - The Next Oil Crisis: Is the Boom Just Another Bubble? The University of Texas at Austin, November 30 - December 1 Day 1, Panel 2 - Will Natural Gas Solve America's Oil Problems?

A quote from Matt Badiali in an interview titled "Why Bill Powers is Dead Wrong." Needless to say, when someone suggests to you that decline rates don't matter because we can just drill more and more wells... warning lights should be going off in your head.

For the other side, Bill Powers is the author of the new book "Cold, Hungry, and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth." He presented at our 2012 ASPO-USA conference in Austin, TX. I embedded the video of his talk above.