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Laramie Energy's business strategy is to focus on finding and developing gas reserves from unconventional gas resource plays in the U.S. Rockies.
Unconventional gas resource plays include tight sands, coal beds, and gas shales. Commercially viable unconventional gas resource plays are found in highly concentrated accumulations that cover a broad sub-surface area. Once they have been identified and after pilot studies have determined the appropriate drilling, completion, production technologies to utilize, unconventional gas plays have relatively low geologic and commercial risk.
The development of unconventional gas resource plays is built around large scale drilling programs that repeat common operations in an assembly-line fashion and capture economies of scale to drive down costs. Unlike most conventional exploration and development, unconventional gas resource plays are relatively predictable in timing, costs, production rates and reserve additions and can provide steady long-term reserves and production growth.
Unconventional gas resources have become largest U.S. gas source in the past few years, surpassing the production from traditional gas reservoirs within the lower 48 states. Production from unconventional reservoirs has increased to 54% of natural gas output, from 15% in 1990:
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2006 U.S. Gas Production
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44%
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Tight Sands
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5%
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Coal Bed Methane
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5%
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Gas Shales
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In comparison, production from conventional reservoirs has declined 23% from 2005 to 2006 alone.
Technological advances are shifting the U.S. exploration and production industry to unconventional gas reservoirs to fill the U.S. gas supply gap.
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