Out Fox The $treet

Small-Cap Insight As the global economy struggles along especially in emerging markets, the domestic engineering firms have seen revenues and profits stagnate this year. Ironically, an unlikely source is now contributing to huge growth expectations over the next couple of years. The shale gas revolution in North America is pushing LNG export projects, and ammonia and ethylene plants back to the US where chemical construction projects had dried up for decades. In the case of KBR, Inc ( KBR ) , analysts expect dramatic earnings increases in out years while the stock still trades at a below market multiple. The company is off to a good start with FEED work on a couple of LNG export projects in British Columbia and the recent announcement of a $600M ammonia project in Louisiana. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Even with nat gas prices hitting decade lows and the amount of rigs drilling also hitting decade lows, the production of dry gas from shales continues to rise. The Marcellus Shale appears to be the main if not only culprit of rising production according to the Chart from the EIA below. Figure - EIA Monthly Dry Shale Gas Production Oddly, the supposedly huge decline curve in shale producing wells was suppose to help quickly stem any price declines. Even with the amount of rigs drilling in shales plays down dramatically, it has had little to no impact on production. Possibly 1,000s of wells remained waiting completion and that has delayed the production declines for now. Until this trend reverses, nat gas prices will likely remain low. Once reversed though, pricing could spike as existing wells deplete fast and new wells aren't being drilled. Until then domestic oil service firms such as C&J Energy Services (CJES) could remain weak. In theory, this reversa...