KTVQ-2 News of Billings, Mont. reported April 3 that energy and geopolitics expert Michael Economides called Montana a “superpower” when it comes to the nation’s energy future.
Speaking to the Montana Energy 2012 conference in Billings April 3, he predicted a robust future for oil and natural gas production in the Bakken oil fields located in Montana and in Canada and North Dakota to the north and east, Jay Kohn reported.
“The last time I looked, we were producing 150,000 barrels per day in the Bakken. Today, it’s nearing 600,000 barrels,” said Economides. “I don’t think there’s a story like this in the history of U.S. oil and gas.”
Economides, who is editor-in-chief of Energy Tribune (www.energytribune.com), and a professor at the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, also talked at length about the emerging U.S. presence in the world of liquefied natural gas.
He predicted the price for liquefied natural gas in the United States will soon boom from the current $2 per million British thermal units to $8 per million Btu, which he believes will happen by 2014 or 2015, making the United States the most important player in the world natural gas market. As for crude oil, KTVQ-2 News reported that Economides foresees production in the Bakken exceeding 1 million bpd in the near future.
—Rose Ragsdale
