The following is a fascinating story about natural gas (methane) produced and used by the community of Barrow, Alaska. The creator of this article, National Public Radio (NPR) has a related slide show and description of a scientist studying the natural production and escape of methane from beneath lakes in Alaska and Siberia.
It makes one wonder how much methane gas is generated naturally and escapes into the atmosphere on a global basis. My guess is it is huge.
Peter
Natural Resources Key to Alaska Town's Future
by Melissa Block
Melissa Block, NPR (source)
Richard Glenn, who is half Inupiat Eskimo, is a scientist and a whaling co-captain. He works on developing natural resources to benefit the Inupiat people in Barrow, Alaska.
Previous Story from Barrow
Sep. 10, 2007Scientist Measures an Overlooked Greenhouse Gas
Photo Gallery: Measuring Methane in Alaska and Siberia
Sep. 6, 2007Exploring for Oil in the Arctic's 'Great Frontier'
All Things Considered, September 11, 2007 ·
Barrow, Alaska, is the northernmost community in the United States. Located on the Arctic Ocean, it is home to about 4,500 people.
The surrounding area is also home to huge natural gas deposits. While nearly all other Alaskan villages have to import diesel fuel, Barrow runs on locally produced natural gas. And the future of the community will depend largely on development of this and other natural resources.
Richard Glenn lives in Barrow and is a geologist by training. He helped develop a gas field in the tundra that brings gas into Barrow via a 12-mile pipeline.
"It's a very reassuring feeling to turn on the stove, see that blue flame and know you had a part in bringing a stable energy source to your community," Glenn says.
Glenn works with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, which represents the business interests of Barrow's Inupiat Eskimos.
The Inupiat are shareholders. They own the land, and they are paid dividends from the vast mineral resources in this part of the state.
The oil fields keep Barrow running, says Glenn, who is half Inupiat.
"We have no significant tourism, no agriculture, no commercial fishing, no other local industry. Our future is tied with resource development," Glenn says.
The residents of Barrow are also feeling the effects of an eroding coastline, but Glenn isn't sure whether climate change has accelerated that process. He says the people of Barrow are just "rolling with the punches": reinforcing seawalls, relocating old communities, and moving new communities away from the coast.
But scientists who study whales are seeing migration patterns shifting as the result of climate change, as the ocean warms and food supplies change.
Jackie Grebmeier, a biological oceanographer, has studied animal populations in these Arctic waters for 25 years.
She says she's seeing more gray whales around Barrow in the summer — as the Arctic ice pulls back. But that influx is not sustainable.
"The animals are moving to where their food is … [but] there's only so much open space. The water [here] … is narrow relative to the rich shelf that they normally feed in. So these gray whales eventually will be limited by the space and the prey that they can find," Grebmeier says.
NPR's Art Silverman produced this story.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Chevron And Australia Investing In Gas
It seems the powers-that-be in Australia recognize the importance and value of offshore drilling and energy independence. Compare the following kind of investment and activity in Australia to the current attitude of the United States' Government.
I wonder how many wind turbines or square miles of solar panels it would take to equal the energy equivalent to Chevron's claimed 40 Trillion cubic feet of natural gas "resources" in Australia. These are American dollars (lots of them) being invested in Australia and not America. How intelligent is that? Ask your Congress-person. The following article is interesting.
Peter
Chevron begins massive Australian offshore project
Bloomberg News
March 25, 2009, 5:59AM (source)
Chevron Corp started its biggest-ever exploration campaign off Australia’s northwest coast, targeting finds that will underpin planned liquefied natural gas-export projects.
The drilling, costing “hundreds of millions of dollars,” will include as many as 10 exploration and appraisal wells this year, Roy Krzywosinski, managing director of Chevron’s Australian unit, said today in an interview. It aims to find more gas to supply the planned Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, he said.
Australia’s northwest ranks among Chevron’s four highest- priority exploration regions worldwide, alongside the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and the Gulf of Thailand. The Gorgon venture may cost A$50 billion ($35 billion), Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett said this month, making it the nation’s biggest resources project.
“Long-term resource security is vital to underpin these massive investments such as Gorgon and Wheatstone,” Krzywosinski said by telephone from Perth. The projects are “the top priorities” for San Ramon, California-based Chevron to drive the company’s growth in gas, he said.
Chevron said Jan. 29 it is maintaining worldwide capital spending at about $22.8 billion this year, bucking a budget- cutting trend among petroleum producers, as it seeks to halt two years of drops in output. About $2 billion will go on exploration, mostly in the four priority areas, Krzywosinski said.
Chevron Chief Executive Officer David O’Reilly said March 10 that the company and its partners in Gorgon, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, expect to give the go-ahead in the second half to build the delayed project. It will have an initial production capacity of 15 million metric tons a year, about 76 percent of Australia’s existing LNG capacity.
The 100 percent-owned Wheatstone LNG project is running about 18 months behind Gorgon in the development line-up, and Chevron expects to start initial engineering and design work on that venture in the second half of this year. The work may last until late 2010 or early 2011, Krzywosinski said.
“We’re making a lot of progress on both of these projects,” he said. “I hope to have some good news in the second half of 2009 both on the front of Gorgon as well as Wheatstone.”
The first well in the Australian program, in the Exmouth Plateau area, is under way using the Atwood Eagle rig, he said. A second rig, the Ensco 7500, arrived in Australia this week from the Gulf of Mexico and is due to start drilling at the Exxon-operated Jansz field in early April as part of the Gorgon venture.
Any success in the drilling would add to the discoveries made at Wheatstone in 2004, Chandon and Clio in 2006 and additional gas found at the Iago field in July. Six appraisal wells drilled last year in the Wheatstone-Iago area last year doubled the resources there, Krzywosinski said.
Chevron will pay $550,000 a day for the “ultra-deepwater” Ensco 7500 rig while it is being used in Australia, up from the $365,000 daily rate payable while the rig is in transit from the U.S., Dallas-based Ensco International Inc. said in August.
LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline. Chevron has gas resources in Australia of about 40 trillion cubic feet, Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd. estimated in February last year, making it the largest holder in the country.
www.bloomberg.com
I wonder how many wind turbines or square miles of solar panels it would take to equal the energy equivalent to Chevron's claimed 40 Trillion cubic feet of natural gas "resources" in Australia. These are American dollars (lots of them) being invested in Australia and not America. How intelligent is that? Ask your Congress-person. The following article is interesting.
Peter
Chevron begins massive Australian offshore project
Bloomberg News
March 25, 2009, 5:59AM (source)
Chevron Corp started its biggest-ever exploration campaign off Australia’s northwest coast, targeting finds that will underpin planned liquefied natural gas-export projects.
The drilling, costing “hundreds of millions of dollars,” will include as many as 10 exploration and appraisal wells this year, Roy Krzywosinski, managing director of Chevron’s Australian unit, said today in an interview. It aims to find more gas to supply the planned Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, he said.
Australia’s northwest ranks among Chevron’s four highest- priority exploration regions worldwide, alongside the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and the Gulf of Thailand. The Gorgon venture may cost A$50 billion ($35 billion), Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett said this month, making it the nation’s biggest resources project.
“Long-term resource security is vital to underpin these massive investments such as Gorgon and Wheatstone,” Krzywosinski said by telephone from Perth. The projects are “the top priorities” for San Ramon, California-based Chevron to drive the company’s growth in gas, he said.
Chevron said Jan. 29 it is maintaining worldwide capital spending at about $22.8 billion this year, bucking a budget- cutting trend among petroleum producers, as it seeks to halt two years of drops in output. About $2 billion will go on exploration, mostly in the four priority areas, Krzywosinski said.
Chevron Chief Executive Officer David O’Reilly said March 10 that the company and its partners in Gorgon, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, expect to give the go-ahead in the second half to build the delayed project. It will have an initial production capacity of 15 million metric tons a year, about 76 percent of Australia’s existing LNG capacity.
The 100 percent-owned Wheatstone LNG project is running about 18 months behind Gorgon in the development line-up, and Chevron expects to start initial engineering and design work on that venture in the second half of this year. The work may last until late 2010 or early 2011, Krzywosinski said.
“We’re making a lot of progress on both of these projects,” he said. “I hope to have some good news in the second half of 2009 both on the front of Gorgon as well as Wheatstone.”
The first well in the Australian program, in the Exmouth Plateau area, is under way using the Atwood Eagle rig, he said. A second rig, the Ensco 7500, arrived in Australia this week from the Gulf of Mexico and is due to start drilling at the Exxon-operated Jansz field in early April as part of the Gorgon venture.
Any success in the drilling would add to the discoveries made at Wheatstone in 2004, Chandon and Clio in 2006 and additional gas found at the Iago field in July. Six appraisal wells drilled last year in the Wheatstone-Iago area last year doubled the resources there, Krzywosinski said.
Chevron will pay $550,000 a day for the “ultra-deepwater” Ensco 7500 rig while it is being used in Australia, up from the $365,000 daily rate payable while the rig is in transit from the U.S., Dallas-based Ensco International Inc. said in August.
LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline. Chevron has gas resources in Australia of about 40 trillion cubic feet, Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd. estimated in February last year, making it the largest holder in the country.
www.bloomberg.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
