THE oft-repeated refrain is that a US-style shale boom cannot be emulated outside North America because the services sector to support one isn't in place. It may be true for the short term. Time and some worthwhile discoveries, however, will change the picture. Andrew Gould, BG Group's chairman and previously head of services firm Schlumberger, put the issue into perspective recently. A hydraulic fracturing fleet in the US is capable of operating for 24 hours per day and can carry out 30 tracks per month, he noted. In Europe, the figure would be closer to just two (PE, Oct 2013). A lack of drilling rigs and poorer gas pipeline and distribution infrastructure puts the rest of the world at a disadvantage to North America.
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