During difficult time for Russia, only scientists are trying to soothe the government of the Russian Federation. Following a record slump in oil prices, a group of scientists made a point that the U.S. had seriously overestimated the discovered shale gas deposits. Since there has been no good news related to crude oil over the past few months, this idea was very well welcomed in Russia. Two years ago the U.S. president vowed that discovered natural gas would be enough for at least 100 years. At that time, Obama was supported by officials from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) who also acted with the optimistic forecasts. "For natural gas, the EIA has no doubt at all that production can continue to grow all the way out to 2040. The US companies are planning to invest billions of dollars in natural gas extraction projects," said Adam Sieminski, the EIA agency director. New estimates of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin are far less optimistic. The authors of this study believe that natural gas output in the U.S. will have reached its peak in 2020. Then production will become unprofitable and the U.S. will start to import gas from other countries. Tad Patzek, the head of the University of Texas at Austin's department of petroleum and geosystems engineering, said that "currently, companies are trying to extract shale gas as fast as possible and to export significant quantities. So, the U.S. is setting up for a major fiasco." Moreover, the U.S. Senator John McCain noted the United States could deliver natural gas to Europe prior to 2020 balancing energy exports away from Russia.
