Impact of energy generation on health: unconventional gas

2014 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
South Australia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Deep Underground ◽  
Safe Food ◽  
Gas Tight

In this age of human-induced climate change, drilling for unconventional gas is expanding rapidly. In the United States hundreds of thousands of wells tap into shale gas, tight sands gas and coal seam gas (CSG). In Australia we have large CSG fields containing thousands of wells in Queensland, and several smaller fields in New South Wales and Victoria. The scale of proposed development of shale gas in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will eclipse CSG in the eastern states. Yet unconventional gas extraction has the potential to undermine every single one of the environmental determinants of health: clean air, clean water, a safe food supply and a stable climate.1 To ensure health, water has to be sufficient in quality and quantity. The unconventional gas industry impacts both in a number of ways. Water quality can be threatened both by chemicals in drilling and fracking fluids, and by chemicals mobilised from deep underground in the process.

scholarly journals Does Unconventional Gas Require Unconventional Ownership? An Analysis of the Functionality of Ownership Frameworks for Unconventional Gas Development

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Hepburn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Coherent Property ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Energy Environment ◽  
Unconventional Gas Development ◽  
Point Of Departure

The implementation of a responsive and coherent property framework, capable of effectively supporting the progression of a rapidly expanding unconventional gas industry is proving to be a complex and intricate process for many countries. The theory of mineral ownership that underpins any regulatory framework represents its point of departure. It is increasingly clear that the problems associated with the expansion of unconventional gas development have challenged both private and state based models. This article examines how the core principles that form the foundation for land and mineral ownership in both the United States and Australia have responded to the rapid expansion of the unconventional gas industry. The conventional inertia associated with institutionalized property frameworks has meant that the frameworks are largely resistant to external change. Hence, whilst the transformation that has occurred in the energy industries following the advent of unconventional gas development has been remarkable, ownership frameworks have struggled to cope. Many principles that evolved in a period when unconventional gas was inconceivable are now proving ill-equipped and non-responsive to the new energy environment. This Article argues that the stasis that afflicts ownership frameworks has precluded many of the conventional principles from adapting to meet the needs of this new energy revolution. This has generated an increasing imperative, in both the United States and Australia, to develop and implement legislative initiatives that revise or alter the way in which the schema of orthodox ownership principles applies to unconventional gas. Focused legislative development will promote adaptable, consistent, and structured principles, which in turn will allow ownership frameworks to respond to the operational demands of a new energy era.  

Reimagining Australia's shale gas revolution: lessons at home and abroad

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 511
Author(s):  
Lizzie Knight ◽  
Louise Bell
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Productivity Decline ◽  
Australian Economy ◽  
Gas Market ◽  
Social Licence To Operate ◽  
Access Policies

In Australia the shale gas debate has been polarised between those extolling its virtues with unchecked enthusiasm on one side and deep wariness on the other. How can we re-imagine Australia’s energy future and what is the proper place for shale gas? With 396 trillion cubic feet of potential shale gas reserves (CSIRO, 2012), Australia stands on a precipice of a golden age of gas, but only if those reserves can be developed profitably and with a higher level of community support and understanding. The development of a shale gas industry is likely to transform the nation’s domestic gas and export LNG markets, increase energy security, and bolster the Australian economy. Community concern and infrastructure constraints, however, stand as barriers to the realisation of the industry. The US is one of the few countries to have developed shale gas to a commercial scale. Facilitative government policies, extensive infrastructure networks, open-access policies, a favourable regulatory framework, a highly competitive industry, and a strong R&D focus have allowed the shale gas industry to flourish. Meanwhile, the nascent Australian unconventional gas industry grapples with community support, regulatory duplication and delays, conflicts about competing resources, productivity decline, and rising capital and labour costs. The development of major CSG to LNG export projects in Queensland will promote competition for gas between domestic and international customers. The eastern Australia domestic gas market will no longer be insulated from the world gas market and the domestic gas price is likely to rise to meet international prices. A shale gas industry in Australia could provide part of the solution to future domestic gas shortages and price hikes. To develop an Australian shale gas industry, however, proponents will require a social licence to operate and access to infrastructure. Government and industry need to act now to implement a coordinated strategy that will enable proponents to secure and maintain their social licence and obtain adequate access to infrastructure. While the existing Australian unconventional gas industry and overseas shale gas experiences are defined by a specific set of circumstances and differ from the Australian shale gas experience in a number of important respects, lessons from shale gas projects abroad is paramount to shaping a mature debate and ensuring this potential opportunity is realised.

scholarly journals Shale-Oil Development Prospects: The Role of Shale-Gas in Developing Shale-Oil

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Reynolds ◽  
Maduabuchi Pascal Umekwe
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Shale Oil ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Oil Development ◽  
The World

Currently, most of the world’s shale-oil is coming from the United States, but more may be needed from non-U.S. sources in order to keep the world price of oil from increasing, and yet a number of petroleum producing countries have yet to develop shale-oil resources. This article investigates why that may be. One reason for this may be the role that shale-gas development plays in the search for shale-oil. In the oil and natural gas industry over much of the 20th century, finding oil has usually been more valuable than finding natural gas because the gas has less energy density than oil, making each BTU (or Joule) of oil energy easier to store, transport and use for consumers. However, since shale source-rock often has both natural gas and oil, then it behooves a shale search process to start by looking for natural gas first rather than oil to enhance the profitability of the search process. The problem, then, is that a shale-oil only search strategy has the same problem that first plagued the oil and gas industry: What do you do with the natural gas? In this paper, we will examine how this “chicken and egg” exploration scenario has played out in the U.S. in order to draw lessons on how difficult shale-oil development will be for the rest of the world.

scholarly journals A Study of Unconventional Gas Accumulation in Dannevirke Series (Paleogene) Rocks, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nick Cozens
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Accumulation ◽  
Gas System ◽  
Made In ◽  
Low Porosity

<p>This thesis aims to assess the potential of unconventional gas accumulation of Danevirke aged (65-43 Ma) mudrock of the Canterbury Basin, South Island, New Zealand. Unconventional hydrocarbon resources contained in low-porosity, low-permeability rocks are potentially a large source of natural gas. Recent developments throughout the United States and increasingly so in Australia, signify a shift in exploration efforts from conventional natural gas targets towards unconventional shale gas plays and basin centred gas systems. Despite extensive international progress made in this field of exploration, little is known about New Zealand unconventional hydrocarbon systems.  The Canterbury Basin is approximaty 360,000km² in area and is located approximately between 44°S and 46°S. The deepest part of the basin is located offshore and is known as the Clipper Sub-Basin, which exhibits economic basement depths of 6500m. The Clipper Sub-Basin is a late Cretaceous syn-rift horst and graben feature which trends north east-south west and is bound basinward by the Benreoch High and landward by the Canterbury Bight High. Dannevirke aged transgressive rocks overlay these structures and intermittently exhibit gas-charged intervals in low porosity facies.  Elevated gas concentrations are recorded in four exploration wells in the Clipper Sub-Basin from gas chromatograph readings (up to 2 .7/00.4%). These high-gas zones correspond to intervals of elevated quartz (up to 72wt%), whereas non-gaseous intervals corresponded to quartz values as low as 30wt%. Scanning electron microscopy results do not reveal biogenic silica populations in the cutting samples examined. High silica is related to diagenetic silica transformations of mica, various clay minerals, pyrite and silica transformations. Although no visible porosity is observed in thin sections, FMI wireline analysis illustrate natural fractures predominately occur in siliceous intervals, where resistive fractures can account up to one fracture per 10m of stratigraphic thickness. These fissile or laminated brittle lithologies are likely hydrocarbon conduits or accumulation intervals for wet gas. RockEval pyrolysis results indicate the siliceous mudrocks are organic le-n, comprising an immature gas-prone source rock which averages 1.5% total organic carbon.  Findings made in this research are compared to the. Whangai Formation, considered in this study to be a comparable shale gas system and also to the Monterey Formation of the United States which is a known basin centred gas system. Dannevirke aged sediments found in the Clipper Sub-Basin appear to constitute the requisites of a near-to-source, direct type., basin centred gas system. Implications of this study open up the possibility that New Zealand's widespread Paleocene-Eocene mudrocks are capable of natural gas accumulation and therefore viable natural gas exploration targets in New Zealand.</p>

Mating types, sex, dissemination, and possible sources of clones, of Hypomyces (Fusarium) solani, f. pisi in South Australia

1968 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
RJ Cook ◽  
EJ Ford ◽  
WC Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Fusarium Solani ◽  
New South ◽  
South Australia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mating Types ◽  
North West ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pea Seed

Isolates of Hypornyces (Fusarium) solani f. pisi collected in South Australia, when single-spored and cultured under the same conditions, were separable into three distinct clones. Pairings of the three clones (SA-1, 2, and 3), and of a fourth collected in New South Wales (NSW-I), with tester clones of known mating type and sex, showed that SA-1 and SA-2 were of one mating type (+), while SA-3 and NSW-1 were of another mating type (–). SA-1 and NSW-1 were hermaphrodites; SA-2 and SA-3 functioned only as males. When SA-1 and NSW-1 were paired in reciprocal crosses, fertile perithecia developed in both cases. Fertile perithecia also developed when SA-2 and SA-3 were used as males to fertilize NSW-1 and SA-1 respectively. A clone of H. solani f. pisi, identical with SA-1 in pathogenicity, cultural appearance, sex, and mating type, was recovered from wind-blown soil in a virgin area approximately 1 mile from a pea field but not from soil taken from districts some distance (30 miles in one case and 200 miles in another) from pea-growing districts. Other isolates identical with SA-1 in cultural appearance, mating type, sex, and pathogenicity were recovered from dust taken from a bag of non-treated, certified New Zealand pea seed imported into South Australia, from field soil collected in pea seed-producing areas of the Pacific North-west of the United States, and from England. The occurrence of compatible clones on different continents appears to be due to an international movement of the fungus on pea seed.

scholarly journals Unconventional gas: shale gas and coal seam gas

2014 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Sandra Kentish ◽  
Vaughan Beck
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Shale ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Project Report ◽  
Alternative Energy Sources ◽  
Australian Council ◽  
Future Project

The Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA1), Securing Australia’s Future, Project 6 report, entitled Engineering energy: unconventional gas production, explored the scientific, social, cultural, technological, environmental and economic issues surrounding alternative energy sources, with particular reference to shale gas production. The project was one of a series of strategic research projects for the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. The project report made 51 key findings considering the potential technological, environmental, social and economic impacts of an Australian shale gas industry. Recommendations arising from the report were developed by the Office of the Chief Scientist in consultation with relevant government departments. The symposium presentation was based on the ACOLA project report.

scholarly journals A Study of Unconventional Gas Accumulation in Dannevirke Series (Paleogene) Rocks, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nick Cozens
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unconventional Gas ◽  
Gas Accumulation ◽  
Gas System ◽  
Made In ◽  
Low Porosity

<p>This thesis aims to assess the potential of unconventional gas accumulation of Danevirke aged (65-43 Ma) mudrock of the Canterbury Basin, South Island, New Zealand. Unconventional hydrocarbon resources contained in low-porosity, low-permeability rocks are potentially a large source of natural gas. Recent developments throughout the United States and increasingly so in Australia, signify a shift in exploration efforts from conventional natural gas targets towards unconventional shale gas plays and basin centred gas systems. Despite extensive international progress made in this field of exploration, little is known about New Zealand unconventional hydrocarbon systems.  The Canterbury Basin is approximaty 360,000km² in area and is located approximately between 44°S and 46°S. The deepest part of the basin is located offshore and is known as the Clipper Sub-Basin, which exhibits economic basement depths of 6500m. The Clipper Sub-Basin is a late Cretaceous syn-rift horst and graben feature which trends north east-south west and is bound basinward by the Benreoch High and landward by the Canterbury Bight High. Dannevirke aged transgressive rocks overlay these structures and intermittently exhibit gas-charged intervals in low porosity facies.  Elevated gas concentrations are recorded in four exploration wells in the Clipper Sub-Basin from gas chromatograph readings (up to 2 .7/00.4%). These high-gas zones correspond to intervals of elevated quartz (up to 72wt%), whereas non-gaseous intervals corresponded to quartz values as low as 30wt%. Scanning electron microscopy results do not reveal biogenic silica populations in the cutting samples examined. High silica is related to diagenetic silica transformations of mica, various clay minerals, pyrite and silica transformations. Although no visible porosity is observed in thin sections, FMI wireline analysis illustrate natural fractures predominately occur in siliceous intervals, where resistive fractures can account up to one fracture per 10m of stratigraphic thickness. These fissile or laminated brittle lithologies are likely hydrocarbon conduits or accumulation intervals for wet gas. RockEval pyrolysis results indicate the siliceous mudrocks are organic le-n, comprising an immature gas-prone source rock which averages 1.5% total organic carbon.  Findings made in this research are compared to the. Whangai Formation, considered in this study to be a comparable shale gas system and also to the Monterey Formation of the United States which is a known basin centred gas system. Dannevirke aged sediments found in the Clipper Sub-Basin appear to constitute the requisites of a near-to-source, direct type., basin centred gas system. Implications of this study open up the possibility that New Zealand's widespread Paleocene-Eocene mudrocks are capable of natural gas accumulation and therefore viable natural gas exploration targets in New Zealand.</p>

Shale, Quakes, and High Stakes: Regulating Fracking-Induced Seismicity in Oklahoma, USA and Lancashire, UK

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Miriam R. Aczel ◽  
Karen E. Makuch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Seismic Activity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
High Volume ◽  
The United States ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Induced Seismic Activity

High-volume hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling has “revolutionized” the United States’ oil and gas industry by allowing extraction of previously inaccessible oil and gas trapped in shale rock [1]. Although the United States has extracted shale gas in different states for several decades, the United Kingdom is in the early stages of developing its domestic shale gas resources, in the hopes of replicating the United States’ commercial success with the technologies [2, 3]. However, the extraction of shale gas using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling poses potential risks to the environment and natural resources, human health, and communities and local livelihoods. Risks include contamination of water resources, air pollution, and induced seismic activity near shale gas operation sites. This paper examines the regulation of potential induced seismic activity in Oklahoma, USA, and Lancashire, UK, and concludes with recommendations for strengthening these protections.

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