Shale Oil & Gas: The Development That Changes Everything

MIT News, a journal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reports on a new MIT study that confirms shale gas will make “a big difference” in energy prices in coming decades. Without shale gas, oil and gas prices would rise fivefold by 2050; with shale gas, they would only double. The study concludes that shale gas would moderate energy prices, provide “flexibility” in cutting carbon emissions, stimulate the U.S. economy – and “suppresses the development of renewable [energies].” The EIA, incidentally, says $4 (U.S.) worth of natural gas now buys as much energy as $25 worth of oil. (The MIT study concludes that the environmental risks in shale gas extraction have been “overstated.”) _Globe&Mail

John Deutch, MIT energy expert and chair of a U.S. Department of Energy panel studying the shale industry, says shale gas has created 750,000 jobs with many more to come – especially in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two states that will play a significant role in the 2012 president election. “Over the last couple of years,” Prof. Deutch said, “I’ve realized that what’s happening with unconventional natural gas [shale] is the biggest energy story … in the 40-plus years that I’ve watched energy development in this country.”

According to the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily newspaper, Poland’s state-controlled gas company expects to make its first deliveries of domestic shale gas in the second half of 2012. Up to 3,500 customers will be supplied with gas at a lower price than Poland now pays for the gas it imports from Russia. Poland regards shale gas production as a milestone in its quest for energy self-sufficiency.

...The Daily Telegraph reports that Total SA, France’s biggest oil and gas company, will pay $2.3-billion for a 25-per-cent stake in Chesapeake Energy’s shale deposit in Ohio; and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), China’s largest (and state-owned) energy company, will invest $2.2-billion for an interest in five oil and natural gas fields under development by Devon Energy. The report says U.S., European, Chinese and Indian energy companies are “scrambling” to gain access to vast U.S. shale gas deposits.

This was a good day’s work. Good days of this kind are occurring more and more often. In the first two weeks of January, huge fossil fuel discoveries have been confirmed around the world – including in Brazil, India and Cyprus (where Houston-based Noble Energy confirmed a fifth large gas discovery). Cyprus declared that these finds would, by themselves, “make a substantial contribution to energy security in the EU.” With every good day’s work, the world moves a little closer to energy independence – for almost everyone. _Globe&Mail

Huge tight gas fields have been discovered from China to India to Europe to South America to the Eastern Mediterranean. The vast volumes of gas discovered will overturn conventional markets and force oil & gas dictatorships such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela, etc. to rethink their global and domestic political strategies, as income from hydrocarbon sales begins to decline.