Stories tagged with "gas"

The Rise and fall of the Australian gas provinces

This link from the SMH is a little old (from back in December) but its worth noting what the Australian Energy Market Operator (combining Nemmco's old electricity market operator role with that of the gas market as well) views as the outlook for the eastern states natural gas and coal seam gas supply - Rise and fall of the gas provinces.

What difference would Nord Stream mean to European energy supply?

This is a guest post from Selene Rebane. She is from Estonia, has a degree in journalism and recently graduated from an MSc in International Relations from University of Bristol. She's particularly interested in energy issues in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Nord Stream (also known as the Baltic Pipeline) stirs emotions in Europe.



Nord Stream route (EEZ = economic exclusivity zone).

Produced Water, GOSPs and Saudi Arabia

To the uninitiated the thought of a gas or oil well is one where a pipe goes down into the ground, and out of it flows either a steady stream of oil or natural gas, that is fed straight into a pipeline and then delivered to them (often at what they consider to be an outrageous price) with no further treatment. Or the crude oil that comes out runs straight over to a refinery where (with minimum effort and maximum profit) it is transformed into the gasoline or diesel fuel that they must then again buy at great cost in order to drive in to the liquor store to buy some beer.*

The reality of oil and gas production is considerably different, and fluid that comes out of the well is not the ideal that the uninitiated imagines. So today’s topic will deal with the initial separation of a couple of the parts. This is a part of a series of tech talks that I write on Sundays about various aspects of fossil fuel production. It is a relatively simplistic explanation which seems to fit most folks needs, though it also has considerable help from those with more technical knowledge who add comments.


Total produced water generated by wells in the United States in 2007 (with top 5 state producers identified) Source Argonne National Labs

Shale, gas, and water

This is a short technical note as part of a series of tech talks that discusses some of the aspects of fossil fuel production. By the nature of the length of post that I think will hold people's interest, and what I think folk know and want to know, these posts tend to be very simplistic reviews of topics that are often, in detail, much more complex. I am very grateful to those who, in comments, help to illustrate that complexity.

One of the most promising sources of natural gas that has recently started to come into production is that from the shale deposits around the United States. Since it is possible that similar gas or oil-bearing shales occur around the world this provides a new potential source of energy that has some considerable promise, in the short term, for helping to fuel the world.

Chevron Signs Export Deal For Wheatstone LNG

Chevron's Wheatstone gas field has long been the subject of a tug of war between Chevron (who want to develop it themselves - at one point talking up the possibility of building a GTL plant) and Woodside, who want to use the gas as feedstock for their second Pluto LNG train, which will shortly begin construction at the Burrup Penninsula.

It appears that Chevron have found a customer for the gas at last, with weekend press reports trumpeting a "$90 billion" gas sale to Japanese power company Tokyo Electric. The development is expected to produce 4.1 million tonnes of LNG exported each year. A final decision on the project is expected in 2011.

Drilling Rigs and Drilling Ships

The debate about how much oil is left and recoverable in the world has brought increasing attention to the recovery of oil and natural gas from offshore. And while I suspect that most of those who comment on this site are very familiar with all the terms, some of the more general readership may not be. Let me, therefore, explain just a bit about some of the different words that are being used here - with references and videos, where I can find them - to pictures of the different types of structures that are being used. And if I miss some, please chip in either to ask or answer. Previous posts in this series can be found at the tech talk link.


Drilling barge

Workover Equipment

When we began this series of tech talks, a drilling rig was anything that punched a hole through the ground, to get at the oil or natural gas underneath. Once a hole is drilled, however, there is often other work that needs to be done on the well, but now the infrastructure that helped when we drilled the well starts to get in the way when we need to do other things. And so the tool will change to what is known as a workover rig. (Though these could be the old rigs left in place on a platform after the production wells are drilled - just to keep life clear).


Truck-mounted workover rig from Diesel Power Shares

Making holes and cracks around oil and gas wells

This is a continuation of the tech talks, discussing technical topics, that I write on Sundays. For the past few weeks I have been writing about some of the techniques used in producing the gas from shales, and that will likely continue for another week or two. Because of the need to condense the topic into a relatively short post I would ask those familiar with the topics to understand that I have had to shorten the description and gloss over some details in order to keep the main theme clear. But further comments to help readers understand the techniques better (or questions when it isn't) are appreciated.


Equipment used for hydraulic fracturing a well (Primer)

Horizontal Wells and Gas Shales

This post is one of my series of tech talks, describing some of the ways in which fossil fuels are produced. In the current part of the series we are focusing a little more on the procedures that are being used to recover natural gas from formations such as the Barnett, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Haynesville and Woodford shales. In this particular post I am going to concentrate more on the benefits of horizontal drilling through these shale reservoirs, rather than using the more conventional vertical wells that were used historically. This, and the next three posts in the series are likely to be a bit more technically dense than earlier posts, but I am trying to illustrate some of the problems of production, and some of the gains that technology is bringing to help solve some of them. And while the reason for the horizontal wells can be simplified in this graph from Chris McGill, there are a lot of other things that have to be considered in deciding whether or not the horizontal well is going to be worth developing.



Comparative production from a vertical and horizontal natural gas well (Chris McGill).

Notice the gain in production, but much shorter life of the horizontal well.

Reflections from ASPO: Contradiction, EROI, and Future Energy Supplies



One feature of this year’s ASPO conference that I most enjoyed was the contradiction amongst presentations. Marcio Mello gave an animated talk on Sunday night about the pre-salt formations off the coast of Brazil quoting that there are upwards of 500 billion barrels of oil available, an extravagant estimate that peak oilers are unused to hearing. Monday morning two talks on natural gas were juxtaposed in tone and content, one claiming that natural gas is the “American Treasure” and the other claiming that shale gas is marginally profitable, let alone a “treasure.”

Contradiction in this kind of academic setting magnifies the awareness of all involved by broadening the scope of the discussion.