New Way to Tap Gas May Expand Global Supplies

NY Times ^ | October 10, 2009 | CLIFFORD KRAUSS

[neverdem]

OKLAHOMA CITY — A new technique that tapped previously inaccessible supplies of natural gas in the United States is spreading to the rest of the world, raising hopes of a huge expansion in global reserves of the cleanest fossil fuel.

Italian and Norwegian oil engineers and geologists have arrived in Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania to learn how to extract gas from layers of a black rock called shale. Companies are leasing huge tracts of land across Europe for exploration. And oil executives are gathering rocks and scrutinizing Asian and North African geological maps in search of other fields.

The global drilling rush is still in its early stages. But energy analysts are already predicting that shale could reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. They said they believed that gas reserves in many countries could increase over the next two decades, comparable with the 40 percent increase in the United States in recent years.

“It’s a breakout play that is going to identify gigantic resources around the world,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Rice University. “That will change the geopolitics of natural gas.”

More extensive use of natural gas could aid in reducing global warming, because gas produces fewer emissions of greenhouse gases than either oil or coal. China and India, which have growing economies that rely heavily on coal for electricity, appear to have large potential for production of shale gas. Larger gas reserves would encourage developing countries to convert more of their transportation fleets to use natural gas rather than gasoline.

Shale is a sedimentary rock rich in organic material that is found in many parts of the world. It was of little use as a source of gas until about a decade ago, when American companies developed new techniques to fracture the rock and...

[BwanaNdege]

“The ecosphere is already saturated with water”

So, you are walking around in a dense fog right now? As is everyone else on earth?

Average Global Relative humidity at the surface is 78%. At higher altitudes it drops, being 37% at 30,000’.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Left out the sarc tag. The shale (actually, *any*) NG rigs I have seen are quite benign, usually a small cluster of gear in the middle of “nowhere” once in operation. Enviros, however, deeply fear shale exploration once it includes liquid hydrocarbon product because they fear massive ugly pits with accompanying steam generating gear and a dig out/break up processing operation that creates tremendous amounts of waste oil and potential groundwater pollution. And those that I have seen are indeed pretty ugly.

[neverdem]

Assuming that the NYT is a mouthpiece for the Democrat party, I would tend to think that this non-news article is setting up a fall back position for the case that cap-and-tax legislation fails.

It was on the front page of the NY edition, not the national. Go figure. It was otherwise buried in the energy/environment section, IIRC.

[SunkenCiv]

Shale is a sedimentary rock rich in organic material that is found in many parts of the world. It was of little use as a source of gas until about a decade ago, when American companies developed new techniques to fracture the rock and...

Thanks neverdem.

[dusttoyou]

I have worked in and have been oil and gas exploration (drilling) my whole life and I have no idea what you are trying to describe.

Massive ugly pits? accompanying steam generating gear and a dig out/break up processing operation that creates tremendous amounts of waste oil and potential groundwater pollution? The “pits” are drilling fluid and the steam (water vapor) seen is from subsurface heat not some monster machinery spewing waste oil (beleive me damn little oil is let go at $70 a bbl).

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

http://www.oilwatchdog.org/images/blog/5448270/estoniashale.pnp.png

http://redgreenandblue.org/files/2008/11/oil-shale-mining.jpg

http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/green/2008/10/06/Bauert9633_PKivioliresized.JPG

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/09/Stuart_pit.jpg

You’re misreading my point. I am stating what the enviros fear, not what I project. I’m in favor of developing these resources. Once these fields are in operation, they can be cleaned up and worked pretty well. I understand that in the 80’s many of these projects were abandoned when the tax benefits were revoked. Unfortunately, some of those abandoned sites are the squeaky wheel that gets their attention.

[dirtboy]

Natural gas (methane) is CH4 - the hydrogen bonds are where the energy is. Other hydrocarbons have more carbon for less hydrogen, proportionately.

[Repeal The 17th]

Mining of oil shales
and extracting natural gas from fractured shale
are two completely different things.

[Sherman Logan]

Average Global Relative humidity at the surface is 78%.

Correct.

However, since liquid water is widely exposed to the atmosphere, the system is at equilibrium. Liquid water evaporates and water vapor condenses. The addition of a miniscule amount of water vapor will not change these conditions.