Update | market
coal seam methane are also being increasingly exploited. Tight oil is having a huge impact in terms of new production (Figure 6). However, perhaps the biggest impact is that of shale gas. Huge reserves of natural gas are embedded in a particular rock forma- tion, called shale. A relatively new technique, known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, is able to release a large proportion of that gas. In simple terms, the technique involves directional drilling into the shale, followed by the injection of large volumes of water at high pressure. The jet of water (containing certain chemicals and sand) causes micro-cracks to develop and propagate through the shale. The gas is released through these micro-cracks and is collected at the mouth of the well.
Exploiting shale
The exploitation of shale gas has boomed in recent years in the US, dramatically changing its position in terms of energy supply and demand. So unexpected was this change that, just a few years ago, large investments were made in Liquefi ed Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. Faced with the decrease in its domestic production of natural gas, the US was preparing the infrastructure for long-range imports of gas. Not only were such imports rendered unattractive by the local production of shale gas; some of the terminals are, in fact, being reversed in order to allow LNG exports.
This is not likely to remain an exclusively North
American phenomenon. A recent study commissioned by the US Energy Information Agency shows there are
Figure 4: Consumption of oil and gas, 1965-2011
huge reserves of shale gas distributed around the globe. Although both were slower off the mark than the US, China and Europe may soon follow in its steps. Considerable shale gas reserves are located in China’s Szechuan and (especially) Xinjiang provinces; in Europe reserves have been found in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as in the UK (Figure 7). While the full potential of shale gas is still many
years away from being fully exploited, there is already renewed interest in shale oil. The technologies for exploiting this resource are available and have been
Figure 5: Schematic showing various types of gas reserves
May 2013 | PIPELINE COATING 13
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