Unconventional gas disrupts the energy situation

[sen-no-sen]

Germany validates Russian Nord Stream pipeline 2

The German authorities have accepted the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, despite strong challenges at European level.

On Tuesday 27 February, the German shipping and hydrographic agency approved the construction and operation of the pipeline in the country's waters.

Led by the Nord Stream 2 AG, owned by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, the project aims to double by the end 2019 the capabilities of its predecessor Nord Stream 1. It must also allow Russian gas to be transported directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, thus avoiding Ukraine.

After the German go-ahead, the project is still waiting for authorization from the Russian, Danish, Finnish and Swedish authorities, "permits to be issued in the coming months," according to a statement from Nord Stream.

disputes

The German validation does not hide the strong disputes, both at national level and in Europe.

Last month, several German politicians from different political parties warned against Nord Stream 2 in a letter published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "True cooperation can not mean that Germans and Russians accept anything on the heads of our European partners. The EU is divided and trust is lost, "they wrote in the letter, as reported by German radio Deutsche Welle.

Earlier this month, the Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Moldovan and Ukrainian parliaments signed a joint declaration against the Nord Stream 2 project. As the Polish news agency reports, the statement insists that Nord Stream 2 "is not intended to diversify the supply of natural gas, but aims to deepen the energy dependency of the EU countries. , especially from Central and Eastern Europe, to Russia ".

On the contrary, Gazprom argues that the project must respond to the increase in European demand expected in the coming years. In January, the company declared that it had delivered a record amount of gas to Europe in 2017 with a total of 193.9 billion cubic meters delivered, an increase of 8% compared to the previous record held in 2016.

https://www.euractiv.fr/section/energie/news/lallemagne-valide-le-gazoduc-russe-nord-stream-2/

[moinsdewatt]

GB: first shale gas extraction on a site of Cuadrilla

AFP 02 November 2018

The British company Cuadrilla announced Friday that it first extracted shale gas from a site in northwestern England two weeks after launching a hydraulic fracturing operation.

Cuadrilla said in a statement that he had seen the surface of his natural gas exploration well, mixed with water and rock.

"The volumes of gas that have reached the surface are limited at this time," Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan said, but his company described the news as "significant and giving an idea of ​​the potential" of operation.

Cuadrilla, who has had to suspend drilling several times in the past week because of mini-seismic shaking, said he was in the early stages of operations and had not been able to inject as much sand as expected.

The company got the green light from the authorities to operate the first hydraulic fracturing in the UK since 2011, despite many opponents including environmentalists.

The process of hydraulic fracturing consists of creating underground cracks and infiltrating a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to allow the extraction of gas captured in the rock. The company claims that the chemical used will not damage the groundwater.

Beyond the criticism against the injection of chemicals into the soil, hydraulic fracturing has been feared in the UK since previous operations of this type led by Cuadrilla on another site in the region have been accused to have contributed to two small earthquakes in 2011.

The horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations that have started in the basement are only tests to specify the amount of gas available more than 2.000 meters deep. Their results, expected early 2019, should make it possible to estimate the interest of a commercial exploitation.

Other shale gas projects are under study in the UK but none have started to produce due to the complexity of licensing procedures and reluctance or even hostility. some of the residents.

The British government has agreed to the Cuadrilla project in England, but the Edinburgh regional authorities are opposed to any shale gas project in Scotland.

https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org ... lla-181102

[moinsdewatt]

Surprise, Cuadrilla resumes testing in the UK! On another well.

Shale Gas Firm Cuadrilla Resumes Fracking In The UK

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Aug 15, 2019

Cuadrilla has resumed fracking at a second well at its hydraulic fracturing site in northwest due to minor seismic events.

Earlier this month, the UK's regulator, the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), agreed Cuadrilla's fracking plan for the second well at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire. The authority approved a well completion proposal for the second well, as well as a three-year extended well test which includes a one-year consent for gas flaring.

Cuadrilla plans to complete the work of the end of the year and test the well afterwards, with results expected early next year.

Cuadrilla resumes its fracking operations in Lancashire amidst objections from local residents, while the company-as well as the British government-believe that it could reduce the UK's gas dependence and contribute to its net zero emissions by 2050.

Cuadrilla has stopped during its first year in the past, due to the presence of a large number of micronutrients.
.......

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News ... he-UK.html

[moinsdewatt]

Shale gas: London suspends hydraulic fracturing for fear of earthquakes

AFP • 02 / 11 / 2019

The British government has announced Saturday suspend hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas underground because of the risk of earthquakes, reversing this unpopular topic at the very beginning of the legislative campaign.

The United Kingdom originally wanted to follow the example of the United States, where the shale industry experienced a spectacular boom boosting the country's energy independence, thanks to the technique of hydraulic fracturing. But this process is criticized all over the world because of its environmental impact, and has been banned in France and Germany.

Business and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom explained that the government has reversed its position following a report by industry regulator The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) seismic near a site where hydraulic fracturing is practiced at Preston New Road, Lancashire, North West England.

"After reviewing the OGA report (...), it is clear that we cannot rule out further unacceptable consequences for the local population," Ms. Leadsom said in a statement.

"For this reason, I concluded that we should put in place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in England with immediate effect," she added.

- Strong mobilization -
The government has explained that it will not give its consent to further hydraulic fracturing projects "unless new convincing evidence is provided".

The process of hydraulic fracturing consists of creating underground cracks and infiltrating a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to allow the extraction of gas or oil captured in the rock.

The development of this technique had provoked a strong mobilization on the part of the populations concerned and the environmental activists, who welcomed this announcement with relief.

Opposition parties, on the other hand, have found it insufficient and advocate a definitive ban.

At the start of the campaign, Rebecca Long Bailey, in charge of Energy at Labor, promised that if it came to power, her party "will ban hydraulic fracturing while the Conservatives will only interrupt it temporarily. You will not can not trust the prime minister, "she said in a statement.

Why has the government not opted for a ban? "Because it's still a huge opportunity for the UK," Andrea Leadsom answered the BBC on Saturday.

- David against Goliath -
The United Kingdom had supported hydraulic fracturing in the hope of reducing its reliance on gas, imported mainly from Norway and Qatar.

The Conservative government had discounted in 2016 the opening of 20 wells by mid-2020.

However, to date, only three wells have been drilled, with no shale gas exploitation having begun and no public knowledge of how much can be extracted in the future, a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO ), the body responsible for controlling public expenditure.

According to the NAO, industry professionals explained the delay in overly strict UK regulation of seismic tremors induced by hydraulic fracturing.

This regulation provides, among other things, to suspend fracking temporarily, when an earthquake greater than 0,5 on the Richter scale occurs as a result of extraction operations.

It was also after a shock last August that the company Cuadrilla decided to suspend indefinitely its drilling of Preston New Road, near Blackpool, which was the only project underway in the United Kingdom.

The other nations of the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are opposed to the development of hydraulic fracturing.

Rebecca Newsom, program manager at Greenpeace, said in a statement that "the government's big bet on hydraulic fracturing is a fiasco".

The executive director of the environmental NGO, Friends of the Earth, Craig Bennett, called the moratorium "a huge victory for people and for the environment".

"For nearly a decade, local people across the country have waged a David vs. Goliath fight against this powerful industry," he said, now hoping that a law will ban fracking. permed.

https://www.boursorama.com/actualite-ec ... 3b4ce63481

[moinsdewatt]

PetroChina released 8 billion m3 of shale gas from Sichuan in 2019.

PetroChina produces 8.03 bcm shale gas from Sichuan in 2019, up 88%

10/01/2020 Comments Offon PetroChina produces 8.03 bcm shale gas from Sichuan in 2019, up 88%

China's state energy giant PetroChina pumped out 8.03 billion cubic meters (bcm) of shale gas in the southwestern province Sichuan in 2019, up 88% from 2018, the company said in a statement on Thursday. * Daily shale gas output at the Southern Sichuan field, the biggest shale gas production base in China, reached as much as 30.97 million cubic meters, it said * The company started to drill 456 new shale gas wells in 2019, with 229 wells having been been lancé
........

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/ca ... gy/page/3/

[moinsdewatt]

Huge project in Saudi Arabia

Aramco announces it wants to invest $ 110 billion in the development of unconventional gas from Jafurah which would contain the astronomical figure of 5600 billion m3 of gas.

Aramco To Invest $ 110 Billion In Huge Gas Field

By Irina Slav - Feb 24, 2020

Aramco plans to invest $ 110 billion in the development of the Jafurah gas field that is estimated to hold some 200 trillion cu ft of gas, the Saudi press Agency reported.

Jafurah is the largest unconventional gas field in Saudi Arabia and could begin producing in 2024, the agency also reported. Production is seen at 2.2 billion cu ft daily, a rate to be reached by 2036.

Besides gas, Jafurah could also produce around 425 million cu ft of ethane, and 550,000 bpd of gas liquids and oil condensates.

Developing its natural gas reserves is a priority for the Kingdom as it seeks to reduce its reliance on crude oil for local power generation and switch to gas so there is more oil for exports. In the future, Saudi Arabia plans to generate 70 percent of its electricity from natural gas and the remainder from renewables.

Yet the Kingdom also plans to become a natural gas exporter, and soon, according to its new energy minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman.

"Soon you will hear about the ability of the kingdom to be a gas exporter," bin Salman said earlier this month without offering any further details.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia is also seeking international expansion in natural gas. Last year the company's senior management noted this ambition in the first conference call of the company ahead of its initial public offering, which took place in December, noting an agreement signed with Sempra Energy for the purchase of 25 percent in the Port Arthur LNG project.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas ... Field.html

Over 22 years, Jafurah could generate $ 8.6 billion a year in income and contribute $ 20 billion a year to the Kingdom's GDP.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered that the gas produced at the field should be prioritized for domestic industry, but analysts believe there will be a surplus available for export
........

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1631841/business-economy

Saudi Arabia's development of Jafurah, the biggest unconventional gas field in the country, will help eliminate the burning of some 688,000 b / d of crude that could be exported, the energy minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/mark ... urn-report

The Jafurah basin is a new frontier unconventional exploration play equivalent in size to the successful Eagle Ford play in south Texas. The basin is located immediately east of the adjacent supergiant Ghawar Oil Field. The middle to upper Jurassic organic-rich mudrocks are recognized as the source of Ghawar hydrocarbons and are being extensively evaluated across the Jafurah basin for shale gas potential. These source rocks, notably the Jubaila and Tuwaiq Mountain, and to lesser extent Hanifa Formations possess excellent hydrocarbon attributes such as high total organic content (TOC), and sufficient maturity, combined with a relatively shallow burial depths, allowing for economical unconventional shale gas and shale oil exploitation.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 7216301428

The basin is just east of the Gawar oil field.

[Exnihiloest]

It is quite normal to exploit these gases: not only does nobody offer more ecological and economically viable energy solutions, but in addition many castigate the best solutions like nuclear.

[GuyGadebois]

It is quite normal to exploit these gases: not only does nobody offer more ecological and economically viable energy solutions, but in addition many castigate the best solutions like nuclear.

Greener than hydraulic fracturing, you had to dare ...
bistro / this-forum-sera there-soon-dead t16327-50.html # p382396 QED

[Ahmed]

All the same, Guy, always extravagant! I find, for my part, that the oil sands, it is not bad either ... and I wonder even if I would not have a little preference for them?

[GuyGadebois]

All the same, Guy, always extravagant! I find, for my part, that the oil sands, it is not bad either ... and I wonder even if I would not have a little preference for them?

Me too, but there is a retreat (I wrote retreat) in Canada:
https://alencontre.org/ecologie/canada- ... heure.html
A fragile victory.