This was good, except that production outstripped pipeline capacity, especially for gas. It also glutted already saturated markets, resulting in a price collapse. The best thing to do with gas was either to flare it or not produce it all, and neither option was good for companies that counted on cash flow from operations to pay for their capital expenditures and private equity financing.

Martin was in a bind. He raised money for two different projects. One was a plan to go into the Panhandle Gas Field and drill horizontal wells to liberate the gas left behind by vertical drilling.

"Fish in a barrel," he gloated inwardly. And, it worked.  What he had not counted on was the terrible condition of the 40-year-old pipelines that had weathered price collapses and negligent owners.  He had "stranded gas" unless he wanted to pay the midstream company to update the system.

"Good grief," he said.  "I might as well buy my own midstream company." But, buying a pipeline did not make sense. After all, he did not know how long the gas production would hold up. or at what production volume.

Martin's other project was equally challenging. He drilled horizontal wells in the Antrim Shale in Michigan, which was really close to the hungry market of Chicago. But, the field was not huge, and there were no nearby pipelines. Given that the wells had a productive life of about 36 months, he could continue to time the development of the new wells to compensate for the depleting ones for at least 5 or 6 years. But, after that, unless they found another field, there would be nothing to produce into a pipeline.  Given those conditions, no midstream companies would touch him.

Martin found a solution:  small-scale, portable LNG facilities

He decided to contact the company and find out how to put in portable LNG solutions, and instead of putting the produced gas into a pipeline, the produced gas would go to the LNG plant, and then they'd put the liquid natural gas in bottles to sell or put in a warehouse (rather than flaring or not producing at all).

Now Martin is looking for more available gas fields.
Contact me him if you'd like to explore the economics of getting a mini-LNG plant on your property.