Shale gas: a step toward sustainable energy future

The world energy consumption is going to rise by nearly 50% in 2050 when compared to 2010. With conventional and unconventional reserves depleting, demand for energy supply is rising. The feasibility and the current efficiency of renewable energy sources may not be capable of satisfying the world energy demand by themselves. Increase in production of non-renewable energy source, i.e., the fossil fuels may help to fulfill the energy requirement of future generations. Shale gas is one of the unconventional sources of energy. Shale gas deposits are scattered all over the planet in low-permeability and low porosity reservoirs. India has overall reserves of shale gas between 600 and 2000 TCF, of which 63 TCF is of recoverable shale gas (Pradhan and Prakash 2000). Shale production depends on many factors such as political matters, wars, social and economic aspects, and exploration techniques. Depending on the recoverable reserve (RR), production of shale gas entails different methods and with a different method, comes different problems described and discussed in this manuscript. Along with the problems, the technically recoverable reserves of different countries, different production mechanisms, and economic aspects of shale gas are also discussed.

An Innovative and Transparent Negotiation Mechanism for the Petroleum Contracts to Develop Marginal Oil Fields

This study is to propose a transparent mechanism among host governments and international oil companies (or IOCs) so an amicable "win-win" situation can be achieved on the negotiation of the petroleum contracts for the development of marginal fields. Marginal field has various definitions. It can be a field with recoverable reserve not exceeding 30 million barrels of oil or 500 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas (Abdul Razak 2011, Malaysian Petroleum Income Tax Act 1967). It also can be a field, somehow "stranded", needs an oil price of US$60/bbl to be commercial (Aziz 2019). Or as simpe as it can be, a marginal field in Nigeria is any field being left unattended for more than ten years from the date of discovery (Auwalu 2020). In this paper, the author recommends that a marginal field be difined as any undeveloped field with a zero present value at 10% discount rate (or PV10 Value = 0) based on the average commodity price of previous 12 months’ first-day-of-the-month prices. This definition is conformable to the SEC pricing guidelines for publicly traded IOCs in the U.S.A. (Scheig n.d.). Host governments endeavor to bring foreign fund and technology to develop their hydrocarbon resources effectively for the benefit of national welfare. IOCs are eager to expand into other promising areas for more hydrocarbon reserves in order to strengthen the balance sheets. A well-designed petroleum fiscal regime can thus achieve the balance between host governments and IOCs (Tordo 2007).

3D microstructure characterisation of tight reservoir rocks and effective recoverable reserve estimation

A data-constrained modelling (DCM) approach has been developed at CSIRO, which enables 3D characterisation of pores and mineral phase distributions using quantitative multi-energy synchrotron CT. For a tight reservoir, such as a carbonate limestone or a shale rock, DCM can generate microscopic partial volume distributions of materials and pores which are the effects of the fine length scales below X-ray CT resolution. Using this information, a quantitative relation between recoverable reserve and pore-throat size can be established for a rock sample. The technique can also be used for characterisation of other unconventional reservoir rocks.

Browse Basin sequence stratigraphic study

In addition to the large gas fields already discovered in the Browse Basin, there is considerable scope for further exploration success because this basin holds an estimated recoverable reserve of 30 tcf gas. TGS has completed the Browse Basin Sequence stratigraphic study to specifically understand the many depositional environments of this basin by a comprehensive analysis of 75 key wells all tied to extensive 2D seismic interpretation. With a standardized lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic interpretation, each well has a full 3rd order sequence boundary record across all logged sections, and was subsequently assigned detailed gross depositional environments (GDE). Tied to the GDE’s are specific and highly detailed facies associations, displayed in 26 facies maps, thereby building a robust multi-sequence geological model constrained by sequences. These basin-wide facies maps delineate known source, reservoir and seal and propose where—within the robust geological model—potentially similar facies have been deposited and preserved. This extended abstract is delivered by the Facies Map Browser (FMB), a unique product, containing all data and interpreted maps. The Browse Basin FMB allows users to quickly understand the basin-wide depositional history and interpreted facies. With the multi-well and multi-source background database, the FMB product has proven to shorten the exploration cycle by its sheer level of detail and wide ranging interpretation.

A Status Update of Westinghouse's Contributions to Clean Coal Technology

The power generation cycle of choice today is the combined cycle, which uses both the Brayton and Rankine cycles. The combustion turbine in a combined cycle can be used in a repowering mode or in a Greenfield plant installation. Today's fuel of choice for new combined cycle power generation is generally natural gas. Due to an estimated global recoverable reserve of over 200 years of coal that can be used to generate electricity, future power generation systems must be designed to include coal. Working with the US Department of Energy and other organizations, Westinghouse is actively pursuing the development and commercialization of several clean-coal-fuelled technologies to provide high efficiency, high reliability, cost competitive and environmentally superior power generation compared to conventional coal-fuelled technology. This paper reports primarily on the status of advanced clean coal power technologies that Westinghouse is helping to develop.