Oil Producers To Share Four Corners Data At Conference FARMINGTON, N.M., Dec.

31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- An energy conference scheduled f or March 18 and 19, 2013, will feature a series of presentations about new drill ing for shale oil in the Mancos Shale Formation of the Four Corners Region of No rthwest New Mexico. The conference will be held at San Juan College in the Hende rson Fine Arts Center. "This is the Renaissance of the San Juan Basin," said conference organizer Dr. D aniel Fine , senior energy analyst with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. "We are seeing a revolution on the part of American technology in natural gas a nd shale oil recovery in shale formations." The conference is titled, "San Juan Basin Energy Conference." The 2013 theme is "Recognition of the Mancos Shale as the next chapter in the American revolution of unconventional natural gas and oil technology leading to national energy inde pendence in 2020." BP America, Chevron, Continental Resources, Encana, PNM and t he U.S. Department of Energy are expected to make presentations at the conferenc e. In the past five years, U.S. oil and gas developers have coupled the new technol ogy of horizontal drilling with the age-old practice of hydraulic fracturing or fr acking to tap into previously locked-in unconventional shale gas and liquids, Fine said. Drilling and exploration companies will present initial findings from recent act ivity in the Mancos Shale, which is estimated to contain 60 billion barrels of o il, with 6 billion barrels expected to be recovered, Fine said. "There are so many companies active in the region," said Randy Pacheco , Dean of the School of Energy at San Juan College. "This conference is important for the Mancos Shale and U.S. development because we're bringing together many industry experts." Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., a Canadian company, has partnered with a local inde pendent producer Dugan Production of Farmington to drill several test wells into the Mancos Shale and continues to plan additional test wells. While Encana has take n the lead in initial exploration, other producers in the oil-and-gas industry h ave stakes in the region. Companies active in the region include ConocoPhillips, BP America, Williams and XTO. "There's a great deal of interest from investment groups, analysts and banks," F ine said. "They will queue up to get information. We know companies are drilling because they have to do permitting, but what they're finding and producing is a work in progress. This conference is their forum to provide initial data." Fine said industry representatives will present their results during the confere nce, which will be Monday and Tuesday, March 18 and 19, 2013, in Farmington. "This conference highlights the changes in the San Juan Basin moving from natural gas production to oil," said Dr. James Henderson , San Juan County Commissioner. "Additionally, The San Juan Basin has seen natural gas production for 90 years, and the region could see oil and gas production for another 50 years." Fine said, "This is a major change and promises to be a boom in the San Juan Bas in and the surrounding economy. Fracturing or stimulation is a method of extract ing oil and gas that has been used since the 1960s. Horizontal drilling has only been deployed in the San Juan Basin since 2010. The combination of the two meth ods has opened up shale reservoirs from Pennsylvania and North Dakota to Texas a nd New Mexico." "The oil window in the Mancos Shale has been unrecoverable until now because it' s a shale formation and it's tight," Fine said. "Vertical wells in the San Juan Basin couldn't develop the shale economically." At the price of $70 per barrel (which is lower than the current price), Fine sai d the Mancos Shale oil reserve would be valued at more than $400 billion. Additional presentations and panel topics include: The development of U.S. shale oil and gas; the potential for natural gas as an additional fuel source for ele ctricity generation; technology and education issues facing technical training for shale development and production; and geology research and findings about the M

ancos Shale. Finally, the regulation panel and presentation will include discuss ion about shale gas exploration. Panel experts will include representatives of the companies mentioned above, plu s the New Mexico Bureau of Geology, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy fo r America, American Counties for Energy Independence and the U.S. Department of Energy. The main sponsors of the conference are New Mexico Tech, the School of E nergy at San Juan College, the Farmington Chamber of Commerce and San Juan Count y. For more information or to register for the conference, visit www.sanjuanbasinen ergy.org. Contact: Thomas Guengerich , New Mexico Tech public information, 575-835-5617 Dr. Daniel Fine , Center for Energy Policy, 505-771-1865 Randy A. Pacheco , Dean, San Juan College School of Energy, 505-486-5306 SOURCE Farmington Chamber of Commerce RELATED LINKS http://www.sanjuanbasinenergy.org PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1xPf3)