Natural Gas Proved Reserves -- Global -- August 22, 2022

Off Cyprus:

• link here.
• this was considered "breaking news" and breathlessly reported -- oh, give me a break.
• but, yes, it's huge -- see Groningen below 
• but so is the Permian 140 trillion cubic feet
  
• TTE, Eni: Cronos-1 well
• preliminary estimates indicate there are about 2.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas in place, “with significant additional upside”
• that 2.5 trillion: put into perspective by numbers below
• Groningen, which the Dutch closed down? 2.8 trillion cubic feet
  

US proved reserves of natural gas by top eight states, 2016 - 2022:

Staggering global riches of natural gas (the numbers keep increasing). From an earlier post:

Top five countries:

• 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.)
  

Now, let's go back and re-run the numbers that were posted earlier:

• that recent huge Mediterranean natural gas find: 30 trillion cubic feet; this was said to be biggest natural gas find ever in the Mediterranean
• 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
• Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion

Other recent stories on natural gas reserves

• Marcellus: 480 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas, Penn State geoscientist 

Comments regarding natural gas reserves

• for me, it's hard enough getting my hands around billions of bbls of oil; it's almost impossible for me to get a feel for trillions of cubic feet of natural gas
• proved reserves are based on price of recovery, confusing matters from year to year
• estimates are just that, estimates (and often inflated for "certain" reasons)
• watch for this gotcha: sometimes reported in trillion cubic feet; sometimes in trillion cubic meters (35 cubic feet = 1 cubic meter; not trivial)
• for me it comes down to two things:
• any discovery over 30 trillion cubic feet natural gas is staggering, worth reporting
• "we" aren't going to run out of natural gas any time soon

Why I Love To Blog -- Reason #12 -- October 18, 2017 -- Natural Gas: Haynesville Has Almost Half What Qatar Has -- HUGE!

This is absolutely why I love to blog. I have just spent a fair amount of time going through the Financial Times article asking whether the US shale revolution has peaked. I check my mail and I find a link to this story in the WSJ: an old fracking hot spot makes a comeback. The Haynesville Shale in Louisiana is being reborn, with the number of active drilling rigs tripling in the past year.

So, to answer the question posed by the Financial Times, no, an emphatic "no," the US shale revolution has not peaked. In fact, with exports of crude oil now increasing, one could argue the US shale revolution is only just beginning.

Now, back to the linked WSJ article. From the article:

A new report by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Haynesville and nearby Bossier shales contain more than 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, up from roughly 70 trillion cubic feet in its last survey in 2010. [And this is at $3-natural gas.]

The Haynesville Shale, a giant natural-gas field in northwest Louisiana, was one of fracking’s hottest spots a decade ago. But it fizzled out about five years ago as gas prices plunged and drillers focused on finding oil next door in Texas. Now, the Haynesville is being reborn as companies with longstanding positions in the area, such as Chesapeake Energy Corp., and newcomers seeking opportunity rush back in and drill again.

Gas production from the Haynesville has risen more than 20% so far this year, to more than 7 billion cubic feet a day from less than 6 billion in January, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The number of rigs active in northern Louisiana parishes and the Texas portion of the field has more than tripled in the past year to 44, according to oil field services company Baker Hughes Inc.

Chesapeake Energy has been learning how to get more out of the ground by drilling and fracking longer wells, Mr. Patterson told investors earlier this month. Chesapeake, which now produces more than 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas each day in the Haynesville, plans to ramp up efforts to re-frack old wells where production is starting to peter out to squeeze more out of them, using newer technology.

QEP Resources Inc. is also re-fracking 30 Haynesville wells this year.

Most WSJ articles have 0 - 5 comments or so. This article currently has 56 comments which suggests a considerable amount of interest in this subject. Some comments on the comments:

• Yiquan Hu is an idiot. At least his / her comment suggests an idiot wrote it.
• Jim Decker is right on target: drilling does not cause earthquakes. Earthquakes associated with fracking have to do with waste water (produced water) being injected back into another deep well. This is almost totally an Oklahoma/crude oil issue and has nothing do to with the Haynesville. With regard to water table contamination: this is "total leftist propaganda."
• David Cates: a nominee for the Geico Rock Award.

By the way, from an earlier post:

• May 16, 2017: Haynesville experiencing a resurgence as takeaway is bottled up in the northeast.

The Haynesville is tracked here. Occasionally.

From an earlier post regarding natural gas reserves:

Now, let's go back and re-run the numbers that were posted earlier:

• 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, Haynesville: USGS survey -- 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, up from roughly 70 trillion cubic feet in its last survey in 2010.

• Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion

In Less Than Five Years, The US Could Produce 40% Of The World's Total Natural Gas -- July 18, 2017

Over at "The Big Stories," I have a link to the "North American Energy Revolution," but I have never had anything there linking to a Mexican story. Now we do. From the Oil & Gas Journal, DOE and IEA now see Mexico's global energy role growing rapidly.

IEA expects the US shale revolution to get a second wind and increase its gas production to 40% of the world’s total by 2022. IEA also projects that the US will become one of the world’s three largest LNG exporters—alongside Australia and Qatar—and give LNG a majority share of the global gas market for the first time by 2040.

“North America is entering a golden age of energy prosperity,” said [EIA], adding that Mexico looks as if could be more than a junior partner. The country is on track to become a full IEA member by year-end, he said.

Update: three countries mentioned in this article on natural gas -- the US; Qatar; and, Australia. What major country with huge NG stores was not mentioned? Wow.

Human Interest Story: Keenan, Apache, Alpine High Oil Field -- January 8, 2017

August 22, 2022: see update here.

Data points from the Alpine High article below:

• oil: 3 billion bbls in Alpine High vs 5.2 billion bbls in Eagle Ford
• 75 trillion cubic feet of gas; 3 billion bbls of oil
• = 15 billion boe
• EOG leased more than 600,000 acres in Eagle Ford for "hundreds of dollars/acre"; later Eagle Ford acreage valued / sold at $35,000 / acre
• 350,000 acres in southern Reeves County
• Apache leased for average $1,300/acre (Permian now goes for $30,000 / acre)
• "discovery well" in Alpine High: Spanish Trail 55 1H
• November, 2015
• off County Road 318, just outside Balmorhea
• 10,767 feet down, 4,326 feet horizontal (almost identical to a middle Bakken short lateral
• "embedded" in clay? clay does not fracture well
• two years to study how to recover oil
• no infrastructure in the area yet 

Staggering global riches of natural gas (the numbers keep increasing). From an earlier post:

Top five countries:

• 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.)
  

Now, let's go back and re-run the numbers that were posted earlier:

• that recent huge Mediterranean natural gas find: 30 trillion cubic feet; this was said to be biggest natural gas find ever in the Mediterranean
• 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
• Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion

Other recent stories on natural gas reserves

• Marcellus: 480 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas, Penn State geoscientist 

Comments regarding natural gas reserves

• for me, it's hard enough getting my hands around billions of bbls of oil; it's almost impossible for me to get a feel for trillions of cubic feet of natural gas
• proved reserves are based on price of recovery, confusing matters from year to year
• estimates are just that, estimates (and often inflated for "certain" reasons)
• watch for this gotcha: sometimes reported in trillion cubic feet; sometimes in trillion cubic meters (35 cubic feet = 1 cubic meter; not trivial)
• for me it comes down to two things:
• any discovery over 30 trillion cubic feet natural gas is staggering, worth reporting
• "we" aren't going to run out of natural gas any time soon

Original Post

Very, very interesting human interest story sent to me by a reader. I received it some time ago (December 30, 2016) but delayed in getting it posted, sorry.

This is the story of how a retired geologist discovered one of the biggest oil finds in the continental US this past decade: the Alpine High oil field.

[Steve] Keenan [retired geologist] and [Roberto] Alaniz [chief geologist] became intrigued by a section along a southern strip of Reeves County. The rest of the industry didn't think much of it. More than 100 wells had failed before Apache arrived, drilled by storied explorers like Oklahoma's Chesapeake Energy and Houston's Petrohawk Energy.

Petrohawk once owned half the oil rights in the area, said Floyd Wilson, the company's former CEO and current chief executive of Halcon Resources, another Houston oil company. But it didn't know quite what it had. "We didn't even have a clue those plays were there," Wilson said.

Oil companies largely avoided southern Reeves County. Most believed rock in that part of the Delaware was too deep and too hot to hold oil. In addition, as seas filled the basin millions of years ago, they deposited clay, which doesn't fracture well to let out oil and gas.

More:

Apache hired Keenan in April 2014, and Keenan opened a San Antonio office. Colleagues from EOG, including geologist Sara Reilly, 37, soon joined him. "I wanted to work for Steve again," she said.

Keenan's team started slowly, helping to improve existing wells and prospects, and operating other wells in the western half of West Texas' Permian Basin, called the Delaware. Keenan and chief geologist Roberto Alaniz, 67, a long-time colleague, had never worked in the Permian. But they liked the Delaware, with its deep underground basin that trapped organic material - the building blocks of oil - as seas rose and fell millions of years ago.

More:

In November 2015, the state approved the drilling of Spanish Trail, off County Road 318 on the edge of a lake outside the sleepy town of Balmorhea. Apache broke ground in January, drilling 10,767 feet below the surface, then turning 4,326 feet horizontally, according to state records..

One night a month later, a field report arrived in the inbox of Tim Samson, a 34-year-old geologist. Samson looked, then looked again. Spanish Trail had hit clear, sweet crude in a reservoir 2,000 feet thick more than a mile below the surface. .

Apache found something else there, too - something Keenan won't talk about, for fear of revealing the secret of Alpine High. But, whatever it was, it told him every well in the play would strike oil.

Much, much more at the link.

The big takeaway for me: there's a lot more to all these plays, including the Bakken, that we don't yet know about.

And the coolest thing: I had already placed "Alpine High - Apache" at the sidebar at the right. 

Random Update On Shale Gas In Europe -- February 3, 2016

Russia - Saudi Agreement? Not Gonna Happen -- Goldman Sachs

Story at Rigzone. Archived.

*************************************  

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 

******************************

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:

• 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.)
  

Now, let's go back and re-run the numbers that were posted earlier:

• 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.

• Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion

So, Pakistan might have discovered natural gas reserves almost twice what Russia has? I'm not holding my breath.

Miss Emily's Picture, John Conlee

Why I Love To Blog: Reason #1,284

A year ago I knew nothing about natural gas, and now I know almost next to nothing about natural gas.

So, quick review. How many remember how much natural gas a country must have to be said to have "massive" amounts? The answer, apparently, is 20 trillion cubic meters. At least that's how Turkey's natural gas reserves are described, or more exactly, potential reserves. That's an easy number to remember.

So, as I was saying: I know almost next to nothing about natural gas. But when I read this story posted by Rigzone, I knew exactly how much 80 trillion cubic meters was. Four times twenty. Reuters reported this week on natural gas potential in Scotland -- look at this:

Scotland, heading for a September independence referendum, could hold enough shale gas resources to cover UK gas needs for more than 30 years, a geological report published by the British government showed on Monday.

But Scotland's roughly 80 trillion cubic metres of gas is only around 6 percent of Britain's potential, with the rest mainly in the Bowland Shale region across northern England. 

Scotland has about 80 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, which could supply all of the UK for 30 years.

But that 80 trillion might only represent 6 percent of Britain's potential. Quick, grab that napkin -- 6% of what = 80 trillion. The "what" = 1,333 trillion. Let's check the math: 0.06 x 1,333 trillion = 80. The math works, but it almost makes me think I'm reading the story incorrectly. Again, cut and paste, " ... Scotland's roughly 80 trillion cubic metres of gas is only around 6 percent of Britain's potential, with the rest mainly in the Bowland Shale region across northern England."

The reason it confuses me is because the US natural gas reserves are said to be about 210 trillion cubic meters. It's hard to imagine the UK with 1,333 trillion, so I must be reading something wrong.

Then the next page of the Reuters article:

In total, the three BGS reports on unconventional oil and gas resources showed Britain has around 1,409 trillion cubic feet of shale gas and 10.4 billion tonnes of shale oil in place. 

Notice how Reuters switched to "feet" all of a sudden. 

1,409 trillion cubic feet converts to 40 trillion cubic meters which corresponds nicely to the 20 million cubic meters that Turkey is thought to have.

So, I'm confused by the article. I must be reading something incorrect. But at least I now know enough that:

• Turkey might have 20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, which is considered "massive"
• the US apparently has about 210 trillion cubic meters
• the Brits might have 40 trillion cubic meters
• the Scots have a lot but probably not 1333 trillion cubic meters

I'll be more than happy if someone can point out where I went wrong with the numbers, cubic feet, and cubic meters in this story.