More gas, more power. Methane hydrate cracked.

Judgeneo · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:22

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...e-gas-in-dramatic-leap-for-global-energy.html

"Methane hydrates available within Japan's territorial waters may well be able to supply the nation's natural gas needs for a century," said the company, adding that the waters under exploration also contain large reserves of rare earth metals.

This combined with the recent surge in shale gas technologies, and the massive oil discoveries happening all over the world (particularly in Africa) means we have a whole lot more fossil fuels that previously thought possible.

The question is, with a rising political green agenda, will we use them?

Gilly · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:26

...and will it affect the cost to the consumer?

aln · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:28

Gilly said:
...and will it affect the cost to the consumer?

Yeah, prices will go up. Just like they always do.

Spit · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:31

Judgeneo said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...e-gas-in-dramatic-leap-for-global-energy.html

This combined with the recent surge in shale gas technologies, and the massive oil discoveries happening all over the world (particularly in Africa) means we have a whole lot more fossil fuels that previously thought possible.

The question is, with a rising political green agenda, will we use them?

Not that we are desperate or anything.

Judgeneo · 12 Mar 2013 at 15:32

Gilly said:
...and will it affect the cost to the consumer?

True, we don't really know what the cost of this extraction method is yet. But more supply *should* reduce cost to the consumer.

We price of gas strangely in Europe, artificially inflating the price. Which makes no sense what so ever.

The glut of gas in the continental United States has led to prices briefly dropping below $2 per million BTU (about 1000 cubic feet), more than 80 percent below average gas prices in 2008. As a result, gas is now outcompeting coal in many locations as the preferred fuel for power generation. In 2011, the United States was the only region in the world where domestic coal demand declined.

In Europe, with gas prices largely pegged to expensive crude oil and the recent global economic crisis pushing down coal prices, European utilities are switching from gas to coal at scale.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...post-export-shale-revolution-rather-than-gas/

fez · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:20

We care about the environment as much as our wallets will allow. I don't know anyone that doesn't make a journey because they worry about the environment. In fact 99% of people I know could cut 90% of their non work driving quite easily without changing their lifestyle.

Jokester · 12 Mar 2013 at 17:25

Well if Co2 really does cause global warming, we're ****ed now!

Fourstar · 12 Mar 2013 at 18:14

Judgeneo said:
We price of gas strangely in Europe, artificially inflating the price. Which makes no sense what so ever.

If anything Europe is on the low side for gas prices.

You only have to look at LNG imports to the UK. We have managed to secure no long term supply contracts from middle eastern exporters as they prefer the Asian market which pays more. At present we get the diminishing excess supply. Centrica is currently trying to secure long term supply contracts for US LNG.

The US price is currently artificially depressed due to over drilling of shale gas wells . Investment structures and balance sheet/stock price needs trumped well economics. It is also worth noting that nearly half of the total drilling rigs in the entire world were required to create this "gas revolution". Let me just say that again. Nearly one in every two drilling rigs on the planet were drilling shale gas wells in the US! (peak in 2009 of ~1600 rigs against world total of ~3400)

Since then the rig count has dropped to ~400 with the remainder moving to drilling for shale oil.

There is currently a backlog of gas wells awaiting fracking and bringing online. Once this supply is exhausted gas production cannot keep increasing. I think I read that due to the high decline rates three or four hundred rigs drilling flat out will be required to hold shale gas production at it's current rate in the long term.

Doesn't bode well for the long term future or US LNG exports.

Judgeneo · 15 Mar 2013 at 23:00

Fourstar said:
There is currently a backlog of gas wells awaiting fracking and bringing online. Once this supply is exhausted gas production cannot keep increasing. I think I read that due to the high decline rates three or four hundred rigs drilling flat out will be required to hold shale gas production at it's current rate in the long term.

Doesn't bode well for the long term future or US LNG exports.

Call me naive, but why is this such a problem? More rigs can be produced.

Jokester · 16 Mar 2013 at 00:00

US shale gas production is so high, the price has dropped considerably to the point companies are pulling investment.

Castiel · 16 Mar 2013 at 00:05

Jokester said:
Well if Co2 really does cause global warming, we're ****ed now!

We were ****** a long time ago if the global warming lobby are to be believed.

JBod · 16 Mar 2013 at 01:42

I do love giving this link to the environmentalists that go nuts over recycling etc...

Philtor · 16 Mar 2013 at 01:46

And what happens when we use that up as well? It has to end somewhere, albeit not in our life time.

valkynaz · 16 Mar 2013 at 05:00

Philtor said:
And what happens when we use that up as well? It has to end somewhere, albeit not in our life time.

For now renewable fuel sources such as wind, water, algae and ethanol. I can't think of any more off the top of my head.

The way it will end when all of the Earth's resources are depleted is asteroid mining and planetary mining.

momentimori · 16 Mar 2013 at 06:59

Philtor said:
And what happens when we use that up as well? It has to end somewhere, albeit not in our life time.

The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stone.

We aren't running out of fossil fuels any time soon; more so now. We'll perfect some other energy source before we run out of them.

Calabi · 16 Mar 2013 at 13:50

momentimori said:
The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stone.

We aren't running out of fossil fuels any time soon; more so now. We'll perfect some other energy source before we run out of them.

Thats what you say but will we? In over fifty years of usage of nuclear power we still havent figured out where to put the waste.

There isnt even that much investment in the alternatives. I guess its like we hope we can cram it all in at the last minute. I doubt thats a viable solution, when limits are reached, we dont know we have reached them and so we suffer a bad outcome.

Firestar_3x · 16 Mar 2013 at 13:54

Known reserves for potential extraction are the largest they have ever been, loads of projects which got canned due to crude prices are back online, it's all good.

Calabi · 16 Mar 2013 at 14:12

Firestar_3x said:
Known reserves for potential extraction are the largest they have ever been, loads of projects which got canned due to crude prices are back online, it's all good.

But there is also cost and the ability to extract those reserves. There is a problem with fracking due to the costs.

We can have loads of reserves but if the cost to extract them and the prices keep going up. They can only be sustained so high.

Firestar_3x · 16 Mar 2013 at 14:25

Costs will and do go down as technology gets cheaper, but yes will be more expense to extract.

SlyReaper · 16 Mar 2013 at 14:28

Judgeneo said:
The question is, with a rising political green agenda, will we use them?

Hopefully not. The sooner we run out of oil the better, as far as I'm concerned. Never mind the global warming stuff, I just find it embarrassing that we as a species still get most of our energy by burning dead plants, and that an alarming number of people think this can continue forever.