Shale gas: an energy saviour?

ROGER HARRABIN | DECEMBER 2010 | SOURCE: BBC

Engineers have known for decades that huge reserves of gas lay trapped tight in shale rocks - but they couldn't extract it economically.

Now that they have found a way to get it out, shale gas is being hailed as the saviour of America's energy independence.

Shale gas: an energy saviour?

Clay metamorphises to shale under geological heat and pressure. Shale can eventually metamorphose to slate.

Over a few years since commercial operations began at scale, shale gas has helped consumer gas prices in the US to fall by about a third; it's offered gas security to the US and Canada for maybe 100 years; and it's presented an opportunity to generate electricity at half the CO2 emissions of coal.

Converting terminals

Some terminals built to import liquid natural gas are now being converted to exports.

The boom in unconventional gas looks to be globally significant. With the US no longer seeking imports, the pressure is off international prices. China is also believed to have very large deposits of unconventional gas. Poland, Germany, Holland and even the UK may have commercially viable deposits.

Europe will still import gas from Russia, but every unconventional gas development erodes Moscow's role as energy superpower.

Dr Manouchehr Takin from the Centre for Global Energy Studies said: "Shale gas is definitely a phenomenon. Shale is deposited all round the world and we can expect there to be shale gas reserves in many many countries, although it's not clear yet how much will be commmercially viable.

"It will depend on how much organic material has been laid down with the shale and how much gas has already escaped. It is going to allow almost every country a degree of energy independence."

Dr Takin points out that shale gas is currently a victim of its own success, having forced down US gas prices to a point where it's no longer economic. But demand will surge back, he predicts.

The gas may have an impact on energy policies worldwide. In the UK, for instance, energy policy offers incentives for nuclear and wind to promote low-carbon growth but also to avoid dependency on "unreliable" gas supplies.

Unconventional gas is making those supplies more reliable, and some firms may press for a greater role for gas, which is more polluting than renewables but cheaper and more flexible.

The other impact may be on investment patterns. The International Energy Agency (IEA) identifies a major shortfall in capital for renewables.

There is finite energy cash globally, and some big firms seeking assured profits are already switching their investment from offshore wind farms - untested in the long term - to those familiar hydrocarbon molecules emerging from unfamiliar places.

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