US shale: What lies beneath

The FT has a pair of pieces on the shale oil industry - one in-depth article comparing the optimistic and skeptic views of the shale oil boom / bubble and another letter to the editor declaring the shale boom the oil industry's "retirement party" - US shale: What lies beneath and Shale: last act at retirement party.

The skeptic view features long-time peak oil proponent Dave Hughes and Bill Powers.

The letter to the editor notes "The crippling problems of shale oil production remain, which are a depletion rate 10 times worse than a conventional well, to produce oil at a 10th of the rate, via wells that cost vastly more to drill than a conventional (land-based) well. Better perhaps than an offshore well, but with a desperate race to drill thousands of wells each year, every year to maintain present production levels."