Category:

Russia's Gazprom says no to shale natural gas production

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom said it wasn’t ready to examine the shale natural gas potential in the country because of abundant conventional reserves. The board of directors at Gazprom met Tuesday in Moscow to survey the prospects for shale natural gas production. “The meeting participants affirmed that at the moment shale gas production in Russia would be inexpedient due to the abundance of conventional gas reserves with their recovery cost being considerably lower than the estimated cost of shale gas production,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, it was pointed out that shale gas production was related to considerable environmental risks.” Last year, the United States produced an average 25.7 billion cubic feet per day in shale natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this month the United States passed Russia as the world’s leading natural gas producer thanks in part […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia and shale can solve Europe’s energy problem

The sooner the region realises its energy policy is a mess, the sooner it can grow, says Paolo Scaroni The aim of European energy policy should be to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. However, we have ended up with energy costs that hamper growth – yet greenhouse gas emissions have not fallen despite the decline in energy consumption. The problem is that we have, so far, failed to grasp the implications of the US shale revolution for Europe. Thanks to the rapid increase in efficient non-conventional gas production, US companies pay about $3.50 per million British thermal units (mBtu) for their natural gas. That is about a third of what Europeans pay. Turning to electricity, not only are European consumers hit by relatively high gas feedstock prices, but they also have to pay an extra charge to cover the more than €30bn of incentives to invest in renewables […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China wants to make shale work cheaper; one well costs $14.7 million

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (UPI) — Chinese energy companies are looking for ways to reduce the cost associated with shale natural gas operations, executives say. “We’re … considering cutting the costs by buying domestic drilling equipment [and] drilling wells in a large scale,” Ma Yongsheng, chief geologist for state-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., was quoted as saying by the Platts energy news service Friday. Platts reported it costs approximately $14.7 million to drill one shale natural gas well in the country. Another executive, Jin Shumao, vice president of Chinese energy services company SPT Group, said the cost could be cut in half by the end of the decade. China’s shale reserves are considered more geologically complex than those in the United States, where it costs approximately $3.2 million to drill a shale natural gas well. The U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said last week China is the only […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple