New shale gas drilling increases estimates of US gas reserves at least 35%

[Chuck]

With half the CO2 emissions and larger reserves, this may be a bridge fuel

Tom Gjelten - NPR - Sept 22, 2009

Is this everything clean coal wants to be? --Ed.

First in a three-part series.

In recent years, natural gas producers in the United States have struggled, mostly in vain, to be taken more seriously in the energy world. Big oil companies like Exxon had concluded that natural gas reserves in the United States were not sufficiently abundant to warrant big investments in exploration and drilling. When small independent gas producers argued otherwise, they were often ridiculed.

"I once had to tell the Exxon people in front of a congressional committee that I respectfully disagreed with every single thing they had presented," recalls Robert Hefner, 74, a veteran gas producer from Oklahoma....[Read More]

[Earthling]

Schlumberger is going through the process of getting approvals to build a facility in Horseheads, NY, which is just south of the Finger Lakes. As usual, some of the locals are objecting on environmental grounds, when in reality natural gas is greener than oil, as the article describes.

Schlumberger (a well services and well logging company) wouldn't build in Horseheads unless it expected a lot of drilling in the area, and all that drilling will be for natural gas.

I did see a huge flame while driving one night, which was a new gas well being tested. By the size of the flame, it was producing just fine, enough to be viable. Police had to tell the locals to quit reporting it, that it was a routine test of a new, successful gas well.

Harry

[ILAveo]

I expect that this will be an important energy resource for the future.

Before you get too excited and start drilling in your backyard beware that the reporting in the article is somewhat misleading in its geology.

1. Shale often (generally?) does not contain natural gas.

2. Shale generally will not support a flame.

3. Gas bearing shale can be found at both shallow (e.g. Antrim Formation in Michigan) and the deep depths the article discusses.

4. "New" is a relative term--they have been extracting gas from the Antrim Formation for at least a couple decades--the new thing is that theory has realized it needs to catch up to practice.

People whose drinking water comes from wells should be concerned about installation of shale gas wells in their water wells' vicinity--article.

[phoebeisis]

In the past weren't explosives used to fracture formations to release oil??

Schlumberger is/was a big employer in Houma (south Louisiana) when I used to work down there.I would drive by one of their big "yards' everyday on the way to my job. It
Schlumberger has a funny pronunciation down here-slumber jay.First few times I heard it, I had no idea they were talking about the yard I drove by everyday.They pay good wages by most accounts.

Many "offshore" jobs have been cheaped down by hiring "catering" companies who use tempworkers that do lots of the nasty jobs on rigs.Jobs that have nothing to do with food service. Schlumberger pays pretty well.It is hard work of course-dangerous too.

Charlie

[Earthling]

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

Schlumberger has a funny pronunciation down here-slumber jay.

Charlie, that's the correct pronunciation everywhere. It's a French name, apparently, or at least the French pronunciation. I almost took a job with Schlumberger when I first got out of college. Maybe I should have, it would have involved lots of travel and adventure, and good pay.

Harry

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

In the past weren't explosives used to fracture formations to release oil??

News releases (cover stories?) put out in the '60s about underground nuclear tests said that A-bombs would be used for that purpose, as well as for making caverns to store gas in. I remember a photo in the Weekly Reader of a guy in a miner's helmet with a light standing atop the collapsed rock filling the lower half of a huge cavity made by a nuclear device.

[99LeCouch]

I worked summers for a surveying company that got a lot of work from the companies drilling the Marcellus Shale. One of the wells I helped stake out the pipeline right-of-way to is operating. Also, my friend's parents are getting a nice royalty check for the gas being extracted from a well underneath their property near Horseheads.

The fracking fluid is nasty stuff, and they need a lot of water to make it. That's a large issue around Horseheads, I don't know if it's been resolved yet.

[phoebeisis]

Harry-lots of french names in S Louisiana of course, but I was still surprised to hear it pronounced like that. There are also lots of German/French names-one bayou I crossed on the way to work was bayou des Allemands-which I'm told means bayou of the germans. I think folks from Alsace Lorraine settled there.

Yaris- yes I remember just that-nukes down boreholes to release the oil.

Thanks
Charlie

[Indigo]

Of course, if the USA suddenly did have a LOT more natural gas, it could help get us off terrorist-oil. I'd buy a NGV if they were available and had a reasonable number of places to refuel.

Dumb question here: how is natural gas different than propane? All the BJ's Wholesale Clubs sell propane and I was wondering if you could rig up these propane cannisters to a NGV in order to extend one's cruising range.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Indigo

Dumb question here: how is natural gas different than propane?

Not dumb.

Propane is one of several types of natural gas.