If you say that shale natural gas requires constant drilling, then its best case EROI has to be below the best case that was experienced with conventional natural gas. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Somewhere I've read that while conventional gas is like pushing all the air out of an air matress, shale plays are more like, well, farts. ;P Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
If they are going to be flashes in the pan, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed companies out there. Coverage in the local press indicates productive lives of over 10 years for these fields. Rework of a field is less expensive, as it involves reuse of the original vertical shaft. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
