Last week Rotarians welcomed Sid McAnnalley of Energen. Energen is the successor to a 130 year old company, Alagasco, who supplied natural gas to the middle third of the state of Alabama. Energen Resources is a 25 year old company that focused originally on the use of coal bed methane. Oil and natural gas are now primarily coming from Midwest TX.

There is a transition of energy sources going on. Natural gas has energy diversity between Industrial and Residential. In 2009 there was a significant change in energy in the US, due to the growth of energy from shale gas. Shale rock is extremely dense, but in the 2007/2008 time frame technology evolved from hydraulic fracturing to horizontal drilling. George Mitchell from TX discovered the process of horizontal drilling – an extremely precise technology. We new gas existed in shale – but did not know how to get it out efficiently.

The number of jobs created from this discovery has made it one of the fasted growing employment markets. Now because of this energy source, the Russians are being forced to negotiate since the US has such a large natural supply. Russia previously supplied most of Europe with energy. Now with d=shale gas the US will out produce gas and oil.

84 million barrels of oil are used by the world daily. 18 million are used by the US. Currently we produce 48% of the 18 million we consume. By 2030 we will out produce Saudi Arabia with this new technology, and we will import less and less. Southern Company burned more gas than coal for the first time ever in 2011. This is much more economical. You can see more info by visiting http://www.fracfocus.org.