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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Environment - "A new technique that tapped previously inaccessible supplies of natural gas in the United States is spreading to the rest of the world, raising hopes of a huge expansion in global reserves of the cleanest fossil fuel"

That is the lede to this story by Clifford Krauss in today's NY Times. More from the story:

Italian and Norwegian oil engineers and geologists have arrived in Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania to learn how to extract gas from layers of a black rock called shale. Companies are leasing huge tracts of land across Europe for exploration. And oil executives are gathering rocks and scrutinizing Asian and North African geological maps in search of other fields.

The global drilling rush is still in its early stages. But energy analysts are already predicting that shale could reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. They said they believed that gas reserves in many countries could increase over the next two decades, comparable with the 40 percent increase in the United States in recent years.

“It’s a breakout play that is going to identify gigantic resources around the world,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Rice University. “That will change the geopolitics of natural gas.”

More extensive use of natural gas could aid in reducing global warming, because gas produces fewer emissions of greenhouse gases than either oil or coal. China and India, which have growing economies that rely heavily on coal for electricity, appear to have large potential for production of shale gas. Larger gas reserves would encourage developing countries to convert more of their transportation fleets to use natural gas rather than gasoline.

Shale is a sedimentary rock rich in organic material that is found in many parts of the world. It was of little use as a source of gas until about a decade ago, when American companies developed new techniques to fracture the rock and drill horizontally. * * *

One recent study by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting group, calculated that the recoverable shale gas outside of North America could turn out to be equivalent to 211 years’ worth of natural gas consumption in the United States at the present level of demand, and maybe as much as 690 years. The low figure would represent a 50 percent increase in the world’s known gas reserves, and the high figure, a 160 percent increase.

The projections suggest that the new method of producing gas “is the biggest energy innovation of the decade,” said Daniel Yergin, chairman of the Cambridge consulting group. “And the amazing thing is there was no grand opening ceremony for it. It just snuck up.”

Over the last five years, production of gas from shale has spread across wide swaths of Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. All the new production has produced a glut of gas in the United States, helping to drive down gas prices and utility costs.

This new method of producing gas is not without environmental and social consequences, however. This article by NYT columnist Veryln Klinkenborg from July 27, 2009 is reminiscent of the corn ethanol, and now wind turbine, rushes in Indiana. Some quotes:
There is plenty of change in the Catskills, much of it driven by energy development. The great scar of the Millennium Pipeline, which will someday bring natural gas from Ontario to New York City, comes straight over the mountains and down to the river. Yet that is nothing when measured against the huge changes that will come if New York State gives the go-ahead to gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

The Marcellus Shale is an enormous, subterranean layer of rock that runs from the Lower Adirondacks down through the Catskills and to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Geologists believe there are colossal amounts of clean-burning natural gas trapped there. And for many months now, representatives from energy companies, whose job is to persuade property owners to sign development leases, have been fanning out across New York’s Southern Tier with contracts in hand. While prices have fluctuated, some landowners have gotten as much as $3,500 per acre, plus 20 percent royalty, far more than people who signed early leases received.

The question of whether you have signed or not has created a new social fault line in local society. Some owners argue that they have not only a right, but an obligation to exploit the resources on their property. Others insist their duty is to protect the land. Before the drilling starts, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation must decide where wells can safely be drilled and devise rules to prevent pollution. The rules, which the department expects to release in the fall, should be tightly drawn. At a bare minimum, they should protect municipal water supplies. Drilling should be forbidden altogether in Ulster, Greene and Delaware Counties, where there is lots of shale and New York City’s water originates.

It isn’t easy getting the methane out of the rock. First, the drilling rigs bear down and sideways, and then millions of gallons of water — drawn from local lakes and rivers — are shot in at high pressure to fracture the shale and release the gas. In time, the water will return to the surface, contaminated and in need of treatment.

Even knowing all of that, it is still hard to imagine how much this effort will transform the landscape. I walked with a friend along a gravel road near Peas Eddy. In a relatively flat spot in the woods, we came upon a surveyor’s stake. If the state gives the go-ahead, that subtle opening will be replaced by an industrial-sized clearing to make space for a drilling rig and all the machinery needed to fracture the shale and extract and pump the gas. All of that equipment will travel on the gravel road we had just walked, which runs along a stream bank.

My friend has refused to sign a mineral lease for his land. Yet his refusal makes no difference. Once a certain percentage of landowners in a development block have agreed to sign — and the state gives the green light — the drillers can go ahead. The rigs will run up and down the roads, and the woods will take on the look of a heavy construction zone, all in the immediate vicinity of people who have tried to hold out against the drilling.

I’ve seen all of this before in the explosion of coal bed methane development in Wyoming over the past decade. The same arguments have been advanced — energy independence — and the same alternative, a sober national approach to energy conservation, has been ignored.

It takes a reasonably practiced eye to see the damage coal bed methane development has done. But when the infrastructure for pumping natural gas out of the Catskills has finally been put in place, there will be no mistaking its impact — no missing the gaping holes in the forest canopy, the artificial ponds full of “fracking” fluid, the industrial damage done.

The estimates of the energy trapped below ground in the Marcellus Shale are indeed staggering. But to get that energy, we will have to give up a good share of the biological integrity of the land that lies above it. To stand in a glade in the Catskills is to realize what a deeply troubling trade-off that is.

Skip ahead now a couple months to Oct. 1st -- the NY rules now have been drafted, according to this Reuters report:
New York State's proposed new environmental rules allowing drilling for natural gas in the multi-state Marcellus Shale formation face opposition from environmental groups and, potentially, from New York City.

The proposed state rules would allow drilling around water wells but require extra reviews, depending on whether the work was within 2,000 feet or 1,000 feet of the well.

Some green groups want buffer zones created around upstate reservoirs to protect the city's water from pollution. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had not yet read the proposed rules, while executives for energy companies said the regulations would raise natural gas drilling costs but help calm public fears of water contamination. * * *

Shale gas, or gas trapped in sedimentary beds, is seen as having the potential to provide the United States with affordable fuel that will help drive economic growth, reduce dependence on foreign oil and limit emissions for decades.

But concerns are growing that the drilling techniques used to fracture the gas-bearing rock could contaminate drinking water. Quinn called for amending the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to tighten rules for hydraulic fracturing.

In this process, also known as fracking, a mixture of water, chemicals and other materials like sand are pumped into the shale formation to split the rock and free the trapped gas.

While the chemicals used may be only a small part of the mix of fracking fluid, some are considered toxic or are known causes of cancer, raising concerns about the potential for ground water contamination.

From a Sept. 30th article in the NY Times:
Geologists have long known about the Marcellus Shale and its abundant gas reserves, but until recently there was no way to extract the fuel in an economical way.

That changed several years ago when operators figured out a way to merge two technologies: horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Because wells have been drilled horizontally, sometimes for miles, operators can now gain access to pockets of gas that would have been unreachable. High-pressure water mixed with chemicals is then injected into the wells to break the shale and allow natural gas to flow out.

Some geologists estimate that the Marcellus basin holds an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of gas, of which 50 trillion cubic feet could be recovered. That would be enough to meet the nation’s needs for about two years.

There are already about 13,000 active oil and gas wells in New York, about half of them already using hydraulic fracturing. In drilling through shale, a great deal more water is needed to crack the rocks. While a conventional well requires using about 80,000 to 100,000 gallons of water, shale rocks require anywhere between three million to five million gallons per well.

"Top Rendell aide quits to join gas driller" is the heading to this story dated Oct. 7, by Mario F. Cattabiani of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Some quotes:
HARRISBURG - At a time when tapping and taxing Pennsylvania's natural-gas reserves is increasingly controversial, a top Rendell administration aide who dealt with those issues is resigning to take a job with a leading gas driller.

K. Scott Roy is stepping down as the $146,000-a-year executive deputy chief of staff to Rendell to become vice president for government relations and regulatory affairs for Range Resources Corp., a Texas-based company with a major drilling stake in Pennsylvania.

Through a Rendell spokesman, Roy declined comment for this article, except to say that he "considers it an opportunity to work for a great company that has a vision to achieve a balance between the Marcellus Shale opportunity and protecting the environment."

Roy's job switch has raised eyebrows in the environmental community, especially given Rendell's about-face five weeks ago on whether to begin taxing natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus shale formation.

"At the least, it doesn't look good," said Jan Jarrett, president and chief executive of PennFuture, a Harrisburg-based environmental group.

Running hundreds of feet below ground from New York to Virginia, the Marcellus Shale is a vein of rock containing vast reserves of natural gas estimated to be worth billions of dollars. Recent technology has made its exploration and extraction possible.

When he delivered his budget address Feb. 4, Rendell touted a so-called "extraction" tax on gas drilled in the Marcellus Shale reserve. He called it a modern-day "gold rush" and said the governor of West Virginia had assured him that such a tax "did not inhibit" that state's natural-gas boom.

That changed Aug. 31. In a move that took even some of his top aides by surprise, Rendell said at a news briefing that he was giving up his push for the tax this year.

He said he changed his mind after meeting with industry executives who convinced him that imposing the tax now would stunt the growth of drilling in the state.

"We felt we should let the industry get off to a good start, and that surpasses our need for money," Rendell said Aug. 31. He said he favored starting such a tax next year.

Tom Gjelten of NPR has this report Sept. 23rd, titled "Water Contamination Concerns Linger For Shale Gas". It includes a number of related links.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 10, 2009 01:38 PM
Posted to Environment