Two North Texas-based energy producers with substantial production in North Texas' Barnett Shale--Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. and Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources--are among those taking issue with a Sunday New York Times article that raised questions about the profitability and productivity of U.S. shale-gas plays.
Exxon Mobil, in a blog post, questioned the article's accuracy and focus and on a variety of points. Exxon, which last year paid $36 billion for Fort Worth-based XTO Energy, a leader in shale-gas plays, particularly appeared miffed by an insinuation that shale-gas plays resemble a "Ponzi scheme."
"Ironically, (Times article) author Ian Urbina "did not call Exxon Mobil, the largest natural gas producer in the United States,for comment," the blog post said. "You would think an investigative journalist for one of the world's great newspapers would have been curious to know why the world's largest publicly traded energy company has invested billions of dollars in a so-called 'Ponzi scheme.' Of course, we're doing no such thing, no matter how hard the article works to imply otherwise."
Quicksilver CEO Glenn Darden, in an open letter to the Times, said a table accompanying the article falsely implied that Quicksliver had represented that average lifetime production for its Barnett Shale wells would be 4.5 billion cubic feet. (Quicksilver consistently has told the Star-Telegram and investment analysts on past occasions that its best wells could ultimately produce 4 billion to 5 billion cubic feet of gas, but that many of its wells are expected to yield considerably less).
Both Exxon and Quicksilver provided explanations as to how natural gas and oil reserves estimated, in response to implications in the Times article that some energy companies may inflate shale-gas reserves.
--Jack Z. Smith
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