Education is not my area, but a knowledge of economics and industrial structure is something that I encounter all the time in teaching in such fields as regulated industries and antitrust law.
But XTO, with a smaller capital structure than the supermajors', is happy to invest in the neglected fields, using new techniques of 3-D imaging, horizontal drilling and so-called fracture stimulation--blowing open rock formations by injecting mudlike fluids down wells to get at big methane reservoirs.