US Reported to Have Abundant Natural gas Supplies
The release of a major new study this week that increases estimates of U.S. natural gas resources is moving debates over the use and monitoring of a fuel that could assist slow global warming but could create other environmental issues. The report by the Potential Gas Committee, a non-profit group that gives closely observed analyses of U.S. resources, indicates a 35 percent leap in domestic gas estimates.
The United States has a total resource base of 1,836 trillion cubic feet (tcf) value of likely and capable resources, the report says, a sharp leap from the last estimate two years back of 1,321 tcf, and the highest in the group’s 44-year history.
With the addition of Energy Department estimates of proved reserves, the total U.S. future supply is 2,074 tcf, a rise of above 35 percent from the committee’s last biennial estimate.
The raise is largely due to the viability of tapping gas from shale formations, like the Barnett in Texas, the Marcellus in Appalachia, the Haynesville in Louisiana and the Rocky Mountains.
“New and advanced exploration, well drilling and completion technologies are permitting us increasingly better access to domestic gas resources — especially ‘unconventional’ gas — which, not all that long ago, were taken into consideration impractical or uneconomical to undertake,” said John Curtis, professor of geology and geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, which supports the committee’s work.
But the increasing use of a method named hydraulic fracturing to access these shale plays has sparked a Capitol Hill battle over monitoring the extraction technique. Several Democrats have launched legislation that would move the technique under Safe Drinking Water Act regulation — reversing an exemption in a 2005 energy law — and require disclosure of chemicals utilised in the process.
The industry and allied groups are battling the attempt. They state it would slow access to what the new report shows is a plentiful domestic energy source.
“Hydraulic fracturing is the Rosetta Stone of natural gas development. With it, other amounts of shale and tight-pocket gas can be found, produced and delivered to Americans who need it. Without it, those resources remain trapped underground,” said Chris Tucker, a spokesman for Energy in Depth, an industry-backed group that recently launched an effort to fight the legislation.
A spokesman for Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the sponsor of the fracturing legislation, said her bill is not about preventing gas production, which she supports, but that the extraction technique must have more oversight and disclosure.
“I would definitely say that she believes it is a necessary technology for the energy market. She also believes we need to ensure the health of the public as these processes are taking place,” said DeGette spokesman Kristofer Eisenla.
Meanwhile, the report is also significant in light of pending congressional efforts to enact a sweeping bill to place mandatory limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
House Democratic leaders plan to bring a sweeping climate bill to the floor in the coming weeks that is sponsored by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The greenhouse gas caps in the Waxman-Markey bill would curb U.S. emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, with an 83 percent cut by 2050.
Burning natural gas currently provides about a fifth of U.S. electric power, and gas produces half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal. However, switching to gas creates concerns about the costs that could accompany increased demand if supplies were tight.
Read more about Unconventional Gas Outlook: Resources, Economics, and Technologies
Loading ...
