Shale Gas to the Rescue?

Despite the hype about the shale gas revolution, the extraction cost of (onshore) conventional gas remains below that of shale gas.

Shale gas wells deplete far more rapidly than conventional fields do.

The boom in this so called shale gas production has allowed the United States to become almost self sufficient in natural gas.

The Bahrain National Gas Company operates a gas liquefaction plant that utilizes gas piped directly from Bahrain's oilfields.

The advent of shale gas has confused the energy debate even more. If gas is substituted for coal, it can be a useful bridge to a low carbon future.

Shale gas is abundant in Europe and North America, in contrast to oil and gas.

Within the past six years, shale gas alone has doubled potential gas resources in the United States and halved the price.

The plan highlights the need to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by shale gas and newly discovered oil reserves.

Even the much heralded shale gas revolution is a lot of hype 160 similar to the gold rushes and stock bubbles of the past. Shale gas wells deplete far more rapidly than conventional fields do.

Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, described the global map of major shale oil and gas deposits.

His plan to exploit and industrialize the country s gas fields remains just a promise.

By 2035, shale gas is projected to account for roughly one half of total US energy production.

Maybe Europe will become a leader in advanced fracking when the shale gas deposits in the US have already been exhausted.

It would enhance US economic competitiveness, especially relative to Europe, given the lower costs involved in the extraction of shale gas.

Indeed, thanks to the new techniques in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, shale gas may well become the dominant energy resource of the future.

However, the rise of fracking should be viewed with caution Poorly managed fracking facilities can leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas and shale oil, to which many frackers are turning, is much more emissions intensive than shale gas.

The most promising breakthrough may well be the discovery of huge reserves of shale gas all over the planet.

Shale gas could thus reduce dependency on OPEC oil and gas while reducing carbon emission.

Annual growth in shale gas production has increased from 17 between 2000 and 2006 to 48 between 2006 and 2010.

The largest gas plant in the United States exists there exclusively to reinject the associated gas into the oil fields.

In principle, Mexico s economy should be benefiting from the same shale gas revolution that is providing a huge boost to the US, where natural gas prices are now less than one quarter of what Europeans pay.

If all goes well, new gas fields recently discovered in the Bay of Bengal will provide even more gas for China s Yunnan Province.

And incorporating shale gas into the world s energy mix could help to combat climate change by creating a bridge to a low carbon future.

A strong and dynamic US economy, reinvigorated by cheap shale gas and accelerating innovation, would rejuvenate the global economy as a whole.

Of course, technological advances, like hydraulic fracturing ( fracking ) in the shale gas industry, could increase supply and therefore lower prices.

He correctly identified this 'food of life' with the gas (also oxygen) given off by heating nitre (saltpetre).

Oil fields, gas fields, saline formations, unmineable coal seams, and saline filled basalt formations have been suggested as storage sites.

Indeed, shale gas extraction is so economically favorable that even American gas exported to Europe would cost 30 less than what the Russian energy giant Gazprom currently charges.

In fact, the United States is now investing heavily in natural gas without recognizing or caring that its shale gas boom, based on new hydraulic fracturing technology, is likely to make matters worse.

From an economic (and environmental) standpoint, fracking is thus unlikely to bring large benefits for Europe shale gas might simply substitute for plentiful conventional gas.

The real issue is thus not whether shale gas should be developed in Europe, but when it should be used today or tomorrow.

Whereas extraction of America s extensive reserves of natural gas was previously thought to be unfeasible, technologies such as hydraulic fracturing ( fracking ) have ushered in a shale gas revolution.

America s rapid switch to natural gas is the result of three decades of technological innovation, particularly the development of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has opened up large new resources of previously inaccessible shale gas.

The question today is whether a new upsurge of investment will come to our rescue. Optimists point to the shale energy revolution in the US.

In fact, estimates by the International Energy Agency suggest that the most significant recoverable reserves of shale gas are in the US and China, not Europe.

Among foreign investors, both Shell and TNK BP are being pushed out by Gazprom in their main gas fields in Russia.

But pro fracking critics of the European Union miss a second point the EU has no authority over the development of shale gas in Europe.

Even the much heralded shale gas revolution is a lot of hype similar to the gold rushes and stock bubbles of the past.

The natural gas fields were first discovered and developed by the United States corporation ARCO, which became a subsidiary of BP in 2000.

The US economy s road to recovery is being built on the shale gas revolution, a revived manufacturing sector, and a decline in the US budget deficit in GDP terms.

More gas and large oil fields lie off the Greek coast in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, enough to transform the finances of Greece and the entire region.

A seldom mentioned reason is that shale gas development in the US has benefited from important tax incentives a model that Europe has no reason to emulate.

But the most crucial and almost always overlooked point about fracking is that shale gas, like all hydrocarbons, can be used only once.

This is a fortunate coincidence, because shale gas production would probably make it politically easier to phase out Poland s economically and environmentally irrational subsidies to local coal production (and consumption).