AFP graphics on global natural gas reserves in trillion cubic metres

Source is British Petroleum which computes WAGs at best. Their data is not so much hard data as it is a heat map of activity. And activity is driven by price and policy.

Proven Reserves are computed using “existing” wells and geotechnical data from measurements of peripheral areas.

The key term here is “existing” as in an operating well. But wells that are shut down because of price or logistics are taken out of the aggregate data.

Energy Information Administration (EIA):
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_enr_dry_a_EPG0_r11_bcf_a.htm

“Individual state volumes are withheld to avoid disclosure of operator-level reserves data”

For example, ranchers in the Bakken will simply flip a switch to turn off a pump and they will wait until price and logistics costs come into range before flipping the pump switch back on.

Reserves and production fell in the US in 2019, 2020 as there was an oversupply due to the Trump Administration’s policy of energy independence.

When factoring in the wells turned off, the US has an enormous supply of oil and gas that could fuel its economy for hundreds of years; some have calculated/guessed more than 500 years.

Mass methane releases are caused by subsea methane clathrate destabilizing and explosively degassing and/or permafrost methane clathrate destabilizing and explosively degassing. Methane trapped underground in sandstones,limestones or shales cannot degas as those formations are covered in capstones of impervious sediments this is why the gas is trapped in those formations to begin with.

To destabilize methane clathrates on the seabed three things can cause it. Earthquakes that shift overbearing sediments releasing the confinement pressures and shifting the stability curve to the right into the gas quadrant. Subsea landslides via gravity or terbidity currents again removing or reducing pressure. Or seawater warming which shifts the temperature curve to the right and into the gas quadrant. For permafrost the primary drive for degassing is thawingof the permafrost shifting the temperature curve to the right into the gas quadrant.

Yes I am a geologist. Petroleum,hydro,and geochemical. With geotechnical engineering for flavor.

Crude from the ground only with NG that comes up with it.

Proven reserves equal what comes up from the ground and what’s estmated from a radial expanding circumference of the center point measured by satellite, infrared, pulsed sound, etc.

As for Brit Petrol’s estimates, it’s important to treat them with a grain of salt as much of the US rancher data is private and not given out. They don’t have that. Most everyone doesn’t have it except for locals, but local talk is not official.

All of the global petrol entities like BP try their best to keep an accurate database but they can’t be precise because there’s no way for them to know the details or of things held back out of view.

US estimates are no different except that ranchers often have large man camps where information gets discussed among hands working the fields. We called that in the Navy “Mess Deck’s intelligence”; other sources are shipping records or pipeline records.

The reason it’s known that the Bakken Region dwarfs Saudi Arabia is because of shipping records and the fact that what’s operational today is but a small fraction of what’s left to drill.

The long and short is that North America dwarfs other parts of the globe in its quantity of oil and gas.

With Trump in the White House, our O & G industry was a net exporter.

With Biden in office, we are screwed.

No those numbers are recoverable reserves of conventional natural gas, tight natural gas, and shale gas.

Coal gasification has two forms mine it and gasify it at the surface them dispose of the heavy metals,radioactive and toxic ash plus sulfur and ammonia compounds all required to get to the ppm level of cleanliness to put synthetic natural gas into the U.S. pipeline grid. The second way is to partially burn the coal underground and recover the offgasses at the surface via secondary wells then do the ppm level clean up most of the heavy metals stay in the ground as does the naturally occurring radioactivity. Coal is loaded with thorium and uranium so much so that coal ash is more grade to modern recovery processes. Sulfur and ammonia still come up the pipe and must be scrubbed. The problems with UCG is subsequent leeching of the burnt out coal chamber which can mobilize heavy metals and ground water toxins into the surrounding strata. The Australians stopped UCG because it was leeching into their groundwater system. So shallow depth UCG is off limits. Deep UCG below saline aquifers or with hundreds of meters plus of overbearing sediments to stop leechate movement could still work. Another strike against UCG is the massive amounts of CO2 gas produced as a byproduct of partial combustion. There is no way around it as chemically coal has a carbon/hydrogen ratio of 14 to 29. For methane you need to reverse that four to one as methane is CH4 so a ratio of 0.25

C/H liquid hydrocarbons are primarily CH2(n)+CH2(n) with a 0.5 C/H ratio overall. The physics dictates that you produce CO2 via the gas shift reaction to generate the needed hydrogen. Where C(solid)+2(H2O) = CO2+2(H2) this is exothermic and needs drive energy that is supplied by partial combustion with O2 so C(solid)+O2= CO + heat

the only other way to gasify coal is to use hot high pressure hydrogen gas nasty stuff to work with. Then you get C(s)+2(H2)= CH4 directly with some smaller side reactions to C2H4 and C2H6. Sourcing 1000C plus hot hydrogen gas without massive energy expenditure is nearly impossible. Nuclear reactors could do it the helium cooled high temperature gas driven one’s that general atomic promotes but has never built can reach 800+C and drive a sulfur iodine hydrogen cycle outputting 900C hydrogen gas. The realistic way to make hot hydrogen is to burn some syngas the carbon monoxide portion of it into heat then reverse water gas shift to yield high temp H2 via the CO+H20= H2+C02 endothermic plus the drive energy from CO+O2 = CO2 plus heat both those CO2 product streams represent 40+% of the original energy of the coal itself so at most you get 60% of the energy in the coal into product synthetic natural gas the rest is in the driving chemical reactions CO2 stream that then is vented something the greens will never allow or compressed at yet another energy penalty and pushed back underground. Given the global governmental standing on CO2 emissions there is no way venting the drive CO2 will be allowed pretty much every government on earth is now limiting CO2 emissions.

“A method of classifying coals by determining the ratio that exists between the carbon and hydrogen present in them. Thus, if a given coal contains 80% carbon and 5% hydrogen, the C/H ratio would be 80:5, or 16. Bituminous coals have a C/H ratio between 14 and 17, and most anthracites have a ratio between 24 and 29. Abbreviation: C/H ratio.”

Russia has vast natural gas reserves but all are in very frozen lands or offshore out in frozen seas. Thus more difficult to bring to market in Europe and China.
Frozen lands with permafrost where all vehicles sink into the mire come the spring.

Here are the world’s largest gas fields. You can see where the Russian ones are.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-largest-natural-gas-fields-in-the-world.html#:~:text=The%20Largest%20Natural%20Gas%20Fields%20In%20The%20World,%20%203%2C500%20%2016%20more%20rows%20

The Largest Natural Gas Fields In The World
Rank Field name Country Recoverable reserves (km3)
1 South Pars Iran and Qatar 35,000
2 Urengoy Russia 6,300
3 Yamburg Russia 3,900
4 Hassi R’Mel Algeria 3,500
5 Shtokman Russia 3,100
6 Galkynysh Turkmenistan 2,800
7 Zapolyarnoye Russia 2,700
8 Hugoton USA 2,300
9 Groningen Netherlands 2,100
10 Bovanenkovo Russia 2,000
11 Medvezhye Russia 1,900
12 Dauletabad Turkmenistan 1,400
13 Karachaganak Kazakhstan 1,370
14 North Pars Iran 1,340
15 Kish Iran 1,300
16 Orenburg Russia 1,300
17 Kharasavey Russia 1,200
18 Shah Deniz Azerbaijan 1,200
19 Golshan Iran 850
20 Zohr Egypt 850

“The reason it’s known that the Bakken Region dwarfs Saudi Arabia is because of shipping records and the fact that what’s operational today is but a small fraction of what’s left to drill.”

Very nice info! The Bakken Region oil and gas is all done by fracking? I think. Not far from Bakken is Montana, where we get most of our coal for our coal fired power plants.
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Montana is the sixth largest producer of coal in the United States, with over 37 million tons mined in 2002 (Table C1). Almost all the mining occurs in the Powder River Basin south and east of Billings. With the exception of the small lignite mine at Sidney, Montana production is entirely low-sulfur subbituminous coal, with 17-18 million Btu per ton. Like most Western coal, Montana coal is cleaner but lower in heat content than coal mined in the East.

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