Shale Gas News and Information
Methane Emissions and Water Use of Shale Gas. Again
- Published on 20 April 2013
- Written by Nick Grealy
Can we please put the methane emissions issue to bed? And while we're there, can we please smother entirely any mad assertion that UK shale gas is going to make unreasonable demands on water resources?
Do any UK energy experts ever look at anything outside of the UK? Carbon Connect’s report out recently, has the same desperate attempt to create controversy where none exists out of the methane emissions of shale gas. Paul Stephens of Chatham House and Alistair Buchanan have both mentioned it this year. I’ve mentioned the reality of the debate numerous times. I guess I’ll have to keep on doing it again.
Carbon Connect’s section on shale gas is literally tacked on the end and is out of date, mis-informed or just plain wrong for almost all of it. I don’t have the time to go through this all so let’s go straight to emissions
Unconventional extraction is not without controversy. Of most concern are the as yet un-quantified risks from fugitive methane emissions released during drilling, and potential for the water and chemicals used - 75 per cent of which remain in the ground after fracking - to contaminate groundwater supplies. Fugitive emissions will increase the lifecycle carbon emissions of shale gas, and more detailed surveys are currently under way in the US.
The surface impact of shale gas in Europe
- Published on 18 April 2013
- Written by Nick Grealy
This picture, of Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone in 1956’s “Written on The Wind” provides valuable insight on three technological advances since then.
Why shale gas will, and must, work in Europe
- Published on 16 April 2013
- Written by Nick Grealy
In the spirit of environmental sustainability, forgive me for recycling this comment I made in response to an FT story that started out:
The jury is still out on whether the US shale gas revolution can be replicated in Europe.
Having had the best part of five years experience observing the shale energy revolution, and being cursed with a long memory, I can provide some context in dismissing the “conventional” thinking of why unconventional energy isn’t for the likes of us inexpert Europeans.
Over the years, various analysts at WoodMac have been wrong about shale gas first in the US, latterly in China and consistently in Europe. I’ve seen others such as Ben Dell of Bernstein move on from being the bad news bears of shale energy to take up new positions promoting shale oil exploration in Europe. One person’s opinion I’d love to hear more of would be that of the FT’s John Dizard, who has been consistently, and spectacularly, wrong since 2009. In his Olympian “expert” voice, he first told us how shale gas, thanks to outdated depletion analysis was either doomed to failure in the US or would need gas prices over $6 as he confidently predicted in 09,10,11 and even 12. In 2013, he doesn’t answer e-mails.
Return of the not so Satanic Mills?
- Published on 14 April 2013
- Written by Nick Grealy
The jobs issue around shale has been too narrowly focused on the actual process in the local area itself, while the true job creation potential could be throughout industry all over the country - and Europe. But in one yet another unintended consequence of shale gas, could a future of shale gas in Lancashire portend a return to the glory days of the North West’s industrial past?
That’s not at all unlikely. Until recently the UK North West and the Rust Belt of Pennsylvania and Ohio shared a dying industrial heritage built on coal. Ohio and Pittsburgh had a historical steel industry, Lancashire had it’s cotton industry. On top of the Marcellus and Utica Shales, US Steel Inc is coming back from the dead and European steel makers like Vallourec or even Russia’s Severstal are making investments in Ohio as Vallourec closes plants in France.
Two key factors leading to the development of the Lancashire cotton industry were coal and rain, the damp climate being suited to cotton spinning. The industry died a lingering death from the 1920’s to the 1960’s, but this being England, what happened almost a century ago sticks in the national mind as if it happened last week.
Shale gas is not going away
- Published on 11 April 2013
- Written by Nick Grealy
The US Potential Gas Committee publishes updates every two years of US natural gas resources and their latest report is the third one covered here, which makes me feel almost like the Rip Van Winkle of European shale. A more apt description may be the Bill Murray character in Groundhog Day. It's deja vu all over again: The 2009 Report:
The report by the Potential Gas Committee, the authority on gas supplies, shows the United States holds far larger reserves than previously thought. The jump is the largest increase in the 44-year history of reports from the committee.
From 2011
The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) today released the results of its latest biennial assessment of the nation’s natural gas resources, which indicates that the United States possesses a total resource base of 1,898 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as of year-end 2010. This is the highest resource evaluation in the Committee’s 46-year history, exceeding the previous record-high assessment by 61 Tcf
The Groundhog syndrome also comes from the common meme of shale gas as bubble about to burst: same stuff, different year. In 2009:
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