Europe Has Much To Learn About Shale (Unconventional) Gas

Before anyone gets too excited about the potential for shale gas or what some term "unconventional" gas potential in Europe, it must be recognized that there are political and environmental issues in Europe that are greatly different from those existing in the United States.

However, with the worldwide attention the problems with deepwater oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is receiving, the potential for finding and producing clean-burning natural gas, onshore, is drawing increasingly greater attention. The demand is there. The technology to find and produce this gas exists. It is the other problems which need to be overcome. Many countries in Europe could use an economic boost right now.
Peter

Does Europe Have Unconventional Gas?

(source)

It provides about half of the U.S. domestic natural gas production. And the U.S. product has already begun to shake up the market for gas in Europe. But the production of unconventional gas, which is usually tightly trapped in rocks and hard to extract, doesn’t seem likely to have a bright immediate future in Europe.

From a geological viewpoint, you could extract unconventional gas in Europe, according to Don Gautier, from the U.S. Geological Service. But that’s not the only thing that matters. Unconventional gas fields, particularly those tapping so-called shale gas, are very large and require the development of hundreds of wells.

Bloomberg

Chesapeake Energy drills on the Barnett Shale.

A field in northern Texas called Barnett Shale has about 8,000 wells covering an area roughly comparable to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg combined, Mr. Gautier says. “You can’t look at these wells as one well at a time, you have to look at thousands as a development plan,” says Mr. Gautier.

That is almost impossible for Europe, given high population density, regulatory difficulties of getting permits to drill over large areas that sometimes cross borders, and likely opposition from environmentalists and affected residents.

A new technology of digging horizontal wells — drilling vertically drill and then pushing out parallel to the ground — might offer some leeway.

Of course, all of this begs the main question: How much unconventional gas does Europe have and where are the main concentrations?

The country which promises most is Poland, where the government has granted concessions for research. However, the first exploration well is just being started, and the first estimates of how much gas is really there won’t come for four to five years, with production in 10 to 15 years, according to Ewa Zalewska, director of the department of geology and geological concessions at the Polish environment ministry.

“Shale gas is the gold rush of the 21st century,” she says. However, “it is too early to answer all the questions.”

Update: Perhaps by the time the first gas emerges, Bronislaw Komorowski, Poland’s likely next president, will have figured out that you don’t dig unconventional gas out of the ground like brown coal.

What A Brilliant Idea!

Let's all use some of President Obama's "economic stimulus" money to buy some natural gas-powered buses and other vehicles used by our local public agencies. If buses, why not police cars, garbage trucks, and utility vehicles? Let's keep our energy dollars here in the U.S., create jobs, and wow, we can even claim to be "green" and doing our part to "save the environment".
Peter

March 25, 2009

City announces new natural gas-running buses
By Icess Fernandez
ifernandez@gannett.com (source)

In Shreveport, it's a little easier being green.
City officials announced Tuesday they will purchase five new compressed natural gas buses with $4.7 million in economic stimulus money.

"This is something that is significantly important," said Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover. "The city of Shreveport needs to take advantage of the opportunity with the Haynesville Shale. We've taken time to research this and have done the due diligence, not just followed a trend."

The vehicles would be cheaper to run compared to the regular diesel buses and the new hybrid ones purchased in 2006. But the startup costs will be higher, said Gene Eddy, SporTran director. The buses cost $30,000 to $50,000 more than a diesel bus.
"The hybrids that were bought in 2006 are running fine, but they cost $100,000 more," he said.
The new buses come with perks: they're quieter and will have bike racks on them.
The stimulus money also will be used to build a fueling station for the vehicles and will be the first natural gas fueling station in the state.

The move will bring Shreveport a step closer to being greener without raising bus fares.
"We've been trying to deal with issues of clean air," Eddy said. "We want to do something that's proactive."

The new buses will be running on Shreveport's streets in about 15 months.
In preparation, the city will have to make some adjustments. The maintenance facility will have to be converted, buses drivers and maintenance personnel will have to retrained.
Shreveport is the second city in the state to announce the new buses. Baton Rouge also will purchase these types of vehicles. Fort Worth, Texas, and Birmingham, Ala., also have a fleets of these buses.

"We're seeing this happen all over the country," Eddy said.

Haynesville Shale May Become World's Largest Gas Field?

Ok, CEO's have been known to exaggerate their company's prognosis. See the following comments by the CEO of Chesapeake Energy. However, the Haynesville Shale in northwestern Louisiana and far eastern Texas is shaping up to be at least a major new gas play. Call it "unconventional shale gas", but it is for real. This gas play is at the heart of what I'm presenting on this blog.

The Haynesville Shale Play involves horizontal drilling, and the interpretation and steering while drilling of those wells, multi-stage frac jobs, and the opening of thousands of feet of pay zone, and multiple wells being drilled in all directions from one location. The Haynesville Shale and plays like it represent a big part of the future gas industry. Stay tuned.
Peter


Haynesville Shale Primed to Become World's Largest Gas Field by 2020 by Starr SpencerPlatts 2/11/2009
URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=72839

The Haynesville Shale may eventually become the world's largest producing gas field, Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy and a pioneer of the play in east Texas and northwest Louisiana, said Wednesday.
(Map showing the location of the Haynesville Gas Shale Play)

Chesapeake expects the play, which only became widely known when the company began talking about it last March, will produce at least 500 Tcf over time and then recover around 700 Tcf before potentially growing even larger, McClendon said during a presentation to the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference in Houston.
"We think in time it will become the largest gas field in the world at 1.5 quadrillion cubic feet," he added.

Haynesville will become the largest US gas field by 2020, he added.
Meanwhile, the Barnett Shale play in north Texas, which sparked the shale craze earlier this decade, now produces 4.5 to 5 Bcf/d, and "is largely responsible for the current oversupply of natural gas" in the US, said the CEO. However, Chesapeake does not believe production will peak at more than 7 Bcf/d.

"If the current 100 rigs there -- half what it was six months ago -- holds, this field won't ever produce more than about 6 Bcf/d," he said.
Last week, Chesapeake peer EOG Resources said it expected the Haynesville to peak in the first quarter at 5 Bcf/d.

In addition, McClendon projected that a declining rig count could cause a 7% to 8%, and possibly even as much as 10%, decline in US natural gas production.

"You could see as much as a 10 Bcf/d swing in gas output year over year," McClendon said. US gas production currently hovers about 60 Bcf/d.

However, oilfield service costs should be down this year about 20%, and that, on top of the fall in rig count, should also spur recovery in the rig count, he said.

"The seeds of recovery in gas prices are being sown today and we think 2010 and 2011 should be a much better environment," said the CEO.

He also said he believes the US gas rig count, which peaked at about 1,500 rigs last September, needs to go down about 60% to create the much-sought price rebound. It is currently at 1,104 rigs.