Natural Gas Reserves

[Shek]

A pretty cool graphic on the state of natural gas reserves in the world.

[S2]

Can't see your graphic for some reason but it spurred me to look at some E.I.A. data. I'd be interested in your thoughts behind the posting. I presume your graphic indicates that over 50% of the proven global reserves lie in Russia, Qatar and Iran.

I'd suggest that's more than an economic interest but, instead, a strategic interest.;) Unfortunately, as with oil there's quite a concentration of LNG resources in a specific corner of this globe.

[Shek]

Steve,

I mislabeled the graph that cannot be seen - it actually shows shale gas reserves (proven and technologically recoverable). Russia, Qatar, and Iran were not evaluated, but to put it in perspective, our recoverable shale gas fields are about 70% of Russia's proven reserves. It doesn't place us into a position of advantage, but it does remove us from a position of disadvantage. Links to the commentary with the graph that cannot be seen and the underlying EIA report follow:

Natural gas: fuel of the future - Tertzakian

http://www.eia.doe.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/

[S2]

Shek Reply

Thanks. That WAS interesting.

"Conspicuously absent from Figure 1 is Russia...Russia undoubtedly has massive volumes of shale gas too, but continued development of its massive conventional endowment...is still easier and cheaper that branching off into shale gas. In short, the Russians have so much conventional natural gas that their shale component will be moot for quite a while. The same can be said for several Middle Eastern countries, including Iran.

You don’t need to go to a conference any more to know that the world has massively abundant supplies of economical natural gas to power an energy-hungry world for a long, long time, centuries in fact. This fortuitous realization is emerging at a time when three major energy systems – oil, coal and nuclear power – are antagonizing one or more societal comfort zones relating to energy security, environmental sustainability, personal safety or affordability."

Question of development time to recovery and impedence from vested interests. The author noted the export potential existing for small domestic consumers like Australia and Canada. That relates to your thought about America not suffering a disadvantage.

I'd be interested in the PRC's recovery costs relative to ours. They may suffer infrastructural impediments while we may see an environmental surcharge applied to extraction. I'm unsure about the regulatory environment but it seems from what I gather at this board the easiest thing to do with extracting North American energy is pulling it from the ground. The real hurdles seem to lie in the bureaucratic and legal morass attendant to each effort.