Three new shale plays will be discovered and defined during the next two years, said W. Henry Harmon, president and chief executive of Triana Energy, addressing Hart Energy’s DUG-East Conference and Exhibition held in Pittsburgh in November.

“We’ve been in the eastern U.S. for a long time, and in the Canadian Maritimes, and we see some really good things coming out of the Maritimes region,” he said. “The shales up there have been well established, but there has not been a concerted development program. There are so many other plays going on that they haven’t received the attention they need. The geology that we’ve worked there shows some very dramatic things—both in conventional and unconventional formations.”

Triana Energy has been working in the Triassic basins along the eastern coast of the U.S. for a long time, he said, and some of the shales “look a whole lot like Appalachia.”

Also, today’s oil and gas exploration and production environment is motivated by compelling forces that are driving specific results, he said. For example, new opportunities are attracting new investment, resulting in the refinement of exploitation plans.

Other driving forces are operational progress that creates competitive tension, resulting in partnerships, whereas the need for growth and distinction results in an escalation of resource costs. And today’s imbalance of gas and oil supply and demand results in market gate-keepers that “rule the day.” As profit margins are squeezed, so innovation occurs. When investments become “stranded,” the industry sees a consolidation of players.

Meanwhile, the drivers of innovation are operators that use the principles defined by private-equity strategies, he said. Other drivers include using science to expand developments, living by principles of continuous improvement, focusing on reducing environmental impacts and experimenting with technologies that have the capacity to drive change.

Harmon predicted that “disruptive technologies” will advance during the next two years and will drive improved recovery from shale plays and reduce development costs. Some of those technologies will include breakthroughs in water consumption and fracturing designs, among others.

“We are in the process of building prototypes of some interesting new tools,” he said. “We expect to be testing those tools in the spring. We will probably have a lot more to say about those next summer.”

Finally, he predicted that the conversion of coal-fired power generation to natural gas fuel as a feedstock will reduce the need for long-haul, high-voltage power systems to connect to coal-fired power plants. And fuel blending will be proven to optimize energy consumption while mitigating environmental impacts. “Propane will lead the way,” he said.

For more coverage of unconventional resource development, see UGcenter.com .

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