NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- Chevron is looking selectively at which shale deposits in the United States will yield the best results for the company, its exploration director said.
Shale deposits are considered an emerging energy resource for the United States. T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil magnate, said abundant gas reserves in the United States made the country the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas."
The U.S. Energy Information Agency said in its 2011 outlook that it projects technically recoverable unproven shale gas reserves sit at 827 trillion cubic feet, 474 trillion cf larger than the previous year's outlook.
U.S. supermajor Chevron recently moved strongly into the shale market with a $4.7 billion deal to acquire assets in shale-producing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.
George Kirkland, the director of oil and gas exploration and production at Chevron, said his company has "a very good queue" of shale assets but stressed that he was "very selective" on where to invest, the Financial Times reports.
Shale production helped push the price of natural gas down to about $4 million per British thermal units. Kirkland said a price range of at least $6 million was needed to cover the associated costs, however.
Chevron announced recently it aimed to boost oil and gas production by 20 percent of their current levels by 2017.
