Story at Rigzone. Archived.
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Shale Natural Gas In Europe -- Update
When I saw the headline over at Rigzone, I didn't know what to think. Here's the headline: ""Mainland Europe Shale Gas: What Now?"
The last I had heard was that with regard to shale gas in Europe, it was a bust, geologically and politically. And now with the world awash in natural gas, I thought, what fresh hell is this?
But one almost has to laugh. Here's the story:
The shale gas boom has proved to be a game changer for the United States economy, bringing about an era of cheap natural gas that has helped to make the country's industry more competitive. Some other countries around the world would like to follow suit, with perhaps Argentina having the best hope of replicating the success seen in North America thanks to its Vaca Muerta shale gas province.
Europe has also been seen as a future shale gas region in recent years, but a Wood Mackenzie survey of global shale gas drilling activity highlights only three European countries – Poland, Ukraine and the UK – as having any shale gas wells scheduled for 2016.
The key data points from the survey:
- the UK will lead the way; the country has "well-documented" support for the development of a shale gas industry and six wells are expected to be drilled in the UK in 2016
- mainland Europe looks bleak after several setbacks in 2015
- results in Poland were disappointing, and a widespread anti-fracking movement has also hindered shale gas development; last summer COP "gave up the ghost in Poland; CVX, XOM, Total, and MRO all withdrew during the previous three years
- in the Ukraine, Eni could drill its first shale well in the Lviv Basin, in the west Ukraine, depending on regulatory and security factors
- Denmark: disappointing
- Germany: disappointing; some legislative support but members of the coalition government could not agree on the details
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Pakistan
From Rigzone:
Pakistan hopes to tap potential shale gas resources in the country and has alloted the exploration project to two oil and gas companies, a local media reported Tuesday.
"Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Company Limited (PPL) have been tasked to carry out a pilot project to explore shale gas deposits, estimated at more than 10,000 trillion cubic feet (Tcf)."
The Pakistani government is making efforts to explore for shale gas resources given a supply deficit of around 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) gas in the South Asian country and rising energy needs, while domestic gas production stands at around 4.16 Bcf/d gas.Wow, I hate dealing with natural gas. I can't get my hands around "trillions" of anything. Here we go again, another mother lode of natural gas estimated at "10,000 trillion cubic feet." To put that in perspective, the Marcellus is huge. Huge. And it's estimated to have 480 trillion cubic feet, so 10,000 trillion cubic feet seems a bit noteworthy. From an earlier post:
Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors. Numbers rounded. Natural gas reserves according to BP/wiki, 2013 - 2014 (US estimate as of December 2013). Top five countries:
Now, let's go back and re-run the numbers that were posted earlier:
- Russia: 6,000 trillion cubic feet
- Iran: 1,000 trillion cubic feet
- Qatar: 900 trillion cubic feet
- Turkmenistan: 600 trillion cubic feet
- US: 350 trillion cubic feet
- #11: Australia: 152 trillion cubic feet (as of January, 2014). (See this post.)
- that recent huge Mediterranean natural gas find: 30 trillion cubic feet
- Barnett, revised USGS figures: 53 trillion cubic feet
- Utica, newly revised figures: 782 trillion cubic feet
- Marcellus, EIA revised estimates: 65 trillion cubic feet, "proved" reserves
- October 18, 2017: USGS survey -- 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, up from roughly 70 trillion cubic feet in its last survey in 2010.
So, Pakistan might have discovered natural gas reserves almost twice what Russia has? I'm not holding my breath.
- Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
- Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion
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