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Posted on 10/12/2009 9:14:17 AM PDT by crescen7
America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all.
The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.
Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, said proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years' supply – and rising fast.
"There has been a revolution in the gas fields of North America. Reserve estimates are rising sharply as technology unlocks unconventional resources," he said.
This is almost unknown to the public, despite the efforts of Nick Grealy at "No Hot Air" who has been arguing for some time that Britain's shale reserves could replace declining North Sea output.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Of course. People underestimate man’s resourcefullness when faced with problems. Of course the GAnggreen will attempt to curtail these activities if possible.
They don’t want an energy solution.
The liberals don’t WANT to solve the energy crisis. They see it as a means to empty exurbs back into the cities, where we can all live in mass transit nirvana.
“As for the US, we may soon be looking at an era when gas, wind and solar power, combined with a smarter grid and a switch to electric cars returns the country to near energy self-sufficiency.”
It just depends...if those miserable capitalist loathing liberals get in the way this will NEVER happen...
"One mustn't bother the natives with unimportant facts."
Shows to go what happens when you get folks with actual ability studying the situation vs political science loosers.
We’re not in an energy crisis.
We are in a leadership crisis.
The upcoming revolt will take care of the latter and ensure the former does not occur.
OOpsie.
(Then again, all of those global warming fables going around being f*rted around (er, being freed) by the democrats (er, socialist-liberals) might prove to be a power supply in themselves.... If they were not so determined to make sure everyone worldwide (except the UN and themselves) were not supposed to be sitting there hungry and thirsty, freezing in the dark with bad water and no sewage.
Natural gas is not a transportation fuel as is liquid petroleum. Natural gas is like my favorate form of stationary power: nuclear.
Natural gas is great stuff but we still need to drill, drill, drill.
But to save the planet from non existent global warming Obama will cripple the US economy with carbon taxes and waste billions on windmills, ethanol and solar plants none of which will meet our energy needs. Perhaps when Americans are sweltering or shivering in their darkened homes and standing in line for their ration of $10 per gallon gasoline they will ask if this was really necessary.
A local refinery is closing down because "demand is down 10%".
10%?
Isn't that the amount of that gooy water absorbing carp that adulterates all gasoline?
So, if we hadn't spent unknown gazillions of our taxes promoting and producing an inefficient destructive additive my pals would still have jobs!
Everytime "do gooders' do something bad things happen.
Liberal Democrats in the PA. State Senate just killed an attempt to lease gas drilling on state lands. No overcoming the energy crisis if elected libs can help it.
Instead of paying state taxes you would get a check for your share of the energy recovered and sold.
LNG/LPG (or is it just LPG, and LNG won't work?) has been in use as a transportation fuel for decades in Europe (don't know about other regions). The market share is certainly smaller that gasoline/diesel, but the technology is available and the infrastructure is in place, and right now it's just a cost-benefit question of having one's car adapted. When oil runs low and gas is plentiful, the balance will quickly tilt towards gas. If it's just LPG, what technical reasons are there that LNG couldn't be used as well?
Yes, it’s actually the best, if your a greenie you like it for it’s clean lean burn, if you a corponazi you like it for it’s reliability in the vehicle (no carbon buildup engines last for 10 forevers).
Sorry, but I’m having difficulties understanding your response. Could you repeat your statement in plain/coherent English please? Corponazi? Last for 10 forevers? Does not compute! No offense!
LNG and LPG are not the same.
LPG, liquefied Petroleum Gas, is primarily propane and butane.
LNG, liquefied Natural Gas, is methane and must be kept at -260 degrees F.
Thanks for the clarification - knew that LPG and LNG are not the same chemically, but just read up on a few details that I’d forgotten/wasn’t aware of. Even so, should we ever find ourselves in a world where LNG is plentiful and LPG or petroleum isn’t, methinks we’d find ways to harness that energy for purposes including personal transport. That storage temperature of -162 °C is still somewhat above that of liquid nitrogen (-196 °C), copious amounts of which I’ve used in an earlier line of work and Linde delivered to our lab by the truckload. The question of costs will then depend on the market.
..."....I'm never goin' to stop the rain by complainin', . . .'cause , nothin's worryin' me..."
I always have to start that song playing in my head when asked to explain this;
Since Rock-a-fellows father stole the oil biz from the Senecas (it was he who started all the Snake Oil salesmen wagons going), it's been a fixed shell game.
I guess it's as much the fault of the suckers as it is the shuckers, you can't have one w/o the other.
Takes two to tango and all that.
It doesn't have to be this way is all I'm saying.
Up to this point the "go along to get along" grindstone nosers would cry "but you have to have this way for profit and capital management".
But all that's in the $hitter now anyway.
Just a notch or two up on the interest on our debt and all the money goes there anyway.
A speckle of a % on 10 Trillion is a pretty penny.
As for the natural gas, it's flying out of the mountains anyway, we have the technology to capture and distribute it now, but you know who is skitish about oversupply.
Can't really blame them, after all many freepers were cryin' for more refineries and Sunoco just shut one down near me because of oversupply.
I'm just saying this crisis allows us to perhaps do things differently.
..perhaps...
"...raindrops keep fallin' on my head.....
re: moltke: LNG as transportation fuel
I think you are correct but LNG is not like propane, which can be kept in liquid form at room temperature. LNG has to be kept at a very low temperature, and since the ‘thermos bottles’ aren’t perfect insulators, it will slowly evaporate.
Also, LNG has a lower energy content per pound and per cubic foot of liquid, so you need not only an insulated and carefully vented tank, but a larger one to attain the range of a gas or diesel powered car.
Maybe LNG could be converted to propane but as you say it’s a matter of relative costs. LNG is a good, clean fuel, but produces carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) just like the rest of the fossil fuels. I don’t think greenhouse gases or global warming pose a problems for the animal kingdom.
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