“Shale” shall share:
Shale Gas, Now and the Future
Abstract
Living in this modern world, we need food, water, but more importantly, we need
electricity and energy. Without energy, we cannot log on Facebook and chat with our
friends; we cannot drive Shelby on the #5 freeways and enjoy the sunshine in California;
we cannot even read this article because it was typed. However, energy never comes free,
and at the time when we demand more and more energy, relying on the conventional
natural resources will lead us no where but a dead end. Therefore, shale gas, an
unconventional energy resource, has its unconventional meaning in the contemporary
society. Once we understand what is shale gas and how it works, we can make a more
reasonable path to eventually build a sustainable human society.
Written by: Xi Luo
Written on February 24th, 2013
Tag: Energy, shale gas, unconventional resources
Imaging a typical morning routine of an average college student. Turning off the
alarm clock that has rung 7 times, the student gets up and walks into the bathroom to take
a shower. After few minutes, he jumps out of the shower and starts to put clothes on. It is
50 degrees outside, a temperature that is too cold to bear for people living in southern
California. Therefore, he turns on the heater and goes to the kitchen to make an omelet on
a stovetop. Satisfied by the yummy food, he leaves the apartment and catches a school
shuttle. As he arrives, the professor of his first class, Human and Environment, is talking
about how important it is to eliminate oil and natural gas and increase the proportion of
alternative energy in our energy distribution. He nods and nods throughout the class, and
expresses his believe that oil and gas will only destroy our environment. However, he
reaches such a conclusion without understanding the impact of petroleum resources such
as natural gas on his life.
Natural gas, or more importantly for now and the next few decades, shale gas, has
been utilized to improve every aspect of our lives. Take the student’s routine activities as
an example. When he takes the shower, natural gas is burned to provide the student with
enough hot water. The heater that the student uses also burns natural gas to release heat.
In addition, natural gas provides the student fuel to cook breakfast, and it generates power
for the school shuttle to work properly. Without sufficient natural gas, we will soon face
a severe energy shortage and when people can no longer afford to use gas to make dinner,
the social order will become chaotic because the foundation of peoples’ lives will have
been shaken. Therefore, while idealists believe that using natural gas, a nonrenewable
resource exploited from underground, is unethical, their idealism based on a lack of
practical considerations is inapplicable to the real world.
Why Shale Gas?
As the population grows and natural resources become depleted, the call for
diverse energy resources has been triggered. Besides conventional energy resources such
as oil and coal, politicians and scientists have also bet on alternative energy resources
such as solar, wind, nuclear power, etc. However, while conventional energy resources
emit large amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and accelerate global
warming, the alternative energy sector cannot support the world’s energy needs by itself
since each of these resources has its own major drawbacks. Solar energy, for example, is
considered as the one of the cleanest energy resources because it is carbon-free and
doesn’t cause pollution. Yet, solar panels have relatively high costs and low efficiency.
The current maximum efficiency these panels can achieve is 23.5 percent, which is
much lower than the efficiency of burning fossil fuel [1]. Thus, solar energy is a
promising energy resource
for the future development
of the world, but is
currently uncompetitive in
the free-market and
therefore not economically
attractive. Another
controversial energy
resource is nuclear-fission
energy. It is attractive to a lot
As shown above, as alternative energy industries are not fully
ready to compete with petroleum industries, oil and gas (green)
will still be the major energy resources in the next few decades.
of
countries with fewer natural resources such as Japan and France because fission reaction
doesn’t produce greenhouse gases, and a small amount of the reactant can generate
electricity that is enough to power a whole city. However, the nuclear security issues, one
of the grand challenges of engineering, haven’t been perfectly resolved, and a single
mistake related to nuclear industry can cause irrecoverable disasters, as those that
happened in Chernobyl and Fukushima [2]. Thus, humanity faces a moral issue to make
the world sustainably developed.
So what makes shale gas so different from the others? Just like oil and coal, shale
gas is not renewable, and it is formed as a result of geological transformation. Burning
shale gas will also emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide [3]. However, compared
to conventional energy resources, shale gas can produce the same amount of energy with
fewer negative effects on the atmosphere. For example, combustion of coal will emit a
large amount of sulfur dioxide, a dangerous source for pollution, while the combustion of
shale gas will mainly generate carbon dioxide. In addition, a considerable amount of
shale gas has been detected in countries such as China, the United States, Canada, etc.,
and these resources are able to meet the world’s energy demand for another 590 hundred
years at a relatively low cost [4]. As governments and companies continue investing
money on conducting research on the exploitation of shale gas, it becomes safer, cleaner,
and more economical. Therefore, shale gas has soon become a hot spot that has attracted
massive amounts of attention and investment from around the world.
“Fracking”?
The most important technical breakthrough that is responsible for the exploitation
of shale gas is hydraulic fracturing technology. Once engineers finish simulating and
analyzing drilling sites, drilling rigs will be set up and the drilling process will start till it
hits the ground-water level. To avoid any contamination to the ground water, engineers
will use pipes to inject cement and create an impermeable case around the drilling hole so
that any chemicals involved will not affect the underground water system [5]. The
drilling process will restart after the “casing” process until it reaches the shale level,
which is about 10,000 feet below the surface. At this point, an important technology
called horizontal drilling will be used. Unlike vertical drilling, horizontal drilling can
maximize the borehole surface area so that multiple drilling wells can be set up for only
one drilling pad, which minimizes the impact to the surface of the environment [6]. The
drilling process will continue within the shale for another 10,000 feet, which marks the
end of drilling process.
The next step is called completion. To connect the reservoir and well board, a
perforating device is inserted to create small
holes in the rock. Since shale has low
permeability, commercialized production of
shale gas also requires artificial fractures,
which is well known as hydraulic fracture,
as shown on the right [7]. A stimulationsolution containing 99.5 percent of
Hydraulic Fracture Technologies
water/sand and 0.5 percent of other chemical, such as acids and chloride, will be pumped
into the drilling hole to create fractures in the reservoir [8]. When water is pumped out
after the process, the recovery water will be recycled for future use and sands and other
chemicals will remain in the fractures to create space for gas release. This step will be
repeated several times to create multiple wells and maximize the gas production. From
site preparation to completion, it usually takes 4 months; however, the production period
for one well will last for 20-40 years [9].
“ The Dilemma”
During the practice of hydraulic fracture for the last 40 years, it has become one
of the most controversial technologies in the engineering field. On one hand, the use of
“fracking” can stimulate shale gas and shale oil production, and alleviate global energy
shortage. On the other hand, the practice has been deemed responsible for contaminating
underground water. As US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) suggested in 2011, the
use of hydraulic fracture contaminated the underground water near Pavilion, Wyoming
[10]. A further-testified report was released to support EPA’s assessment, but it failed to
indicate clearly what the origin of the contamination was. Yet, the suggestion was so
powerful that the public shifted its focus to the dark side of this technology. Following
the report by EPA, another report was soon released to uncover the potential risk of
methane release. As one of the most harmful greenhouse gases, methane is 5 times worse
than carbon dioxide in creating the greenhouse effect [11]. However, all the reports
have not substantial evidence to indicate the risk of the technologies, and therefore, the
dilemma of the development of shale gas remains at a theoretical level.
The Future of Shale Gas
While the using of shale gas was suggested to have potential risks, most of
politicians, scientists, and business leaders believe that shale gas has changed the
construction of the world permanently. From the political perspective, shale gas gives
countries like the United States, for example, the “freedom” to be energy-independent.
“Old-energy” states such as Russia will no longer manipulate the world’s economy and
international relations because of their natural resources [12]. Domestically, shale gas
production can create thousands of jobs in the United States and Canada, reduce the
current 7.8 percent unemployment rate and stabilize the middle class [13]. From the
business perspective, shale gas helps to shape and reconstruct the entire energydistribution in the free market, which would consequently lower the energy cost for
manufacturing, production, and operation. According to a report from the 2011 China
Economy Annual Booklet, while manufacturing in China is cheap because of the laborcost, the United States will soon catch up by lowering the cost of energy with the
production of shale gas. As a result, global economy will shift its focus on manufacturing
from China to the United States, and “Made in China” will eventually die out.
The impact of shale gas on developing countries is also profound. China, for
example, has 1.3 billion populations, 4 times larger than the population of the United
States, and the demand for energy has been supported by coal for decades. However, the
arising awareness of environment protection, along with the restrictions from the Kyoto
Protocol, has left Chinese government no choice but to exploit the next potential energy
resources. While hydropower and nuclear energy have contributed to power millions of
people, problems resulted from developing these resources have led to public outcry, and
part of the governmental programs were even forced to shut down. A turning point finally
came when a group of geologists accidentally found a large reservoir in Sichuan Province
few years ago, which caught the attention from the central government. Later on, the
National Academy of Science announced that 1275 trillion cubic was detected in
Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou, and China became the country with largest shale gas
reserves [14]. Although the cost of drilling a shale gas well in China is 5 times as
expensive as the cost of drilling a well in North America, the central government along
with private sections have invest billions of dollars on research and they are confident
that shale gas will not only resolve the current energy shortage but also provide enough
fuel for the country’s future development [15].
In conclusion, shale gas has been largely responsible for the current
transformation of energy structure. Although its potential hazards, suggested with no
evidence, make people remain skeptical about the technology, it is undeniable that the
discovery of shale gas and the invention of hydraulic fracturing have changed people’s
perceptions about natural gas, and people’s understanding about technology. As Iraj
Ershaghi, distinguish professor from USC Viterbi School of Engineering, commented
about shale gas, “After decades of efforts, shale gas and hydraulic fracturing once again
give human the confidence that technology will lead us to a bright future.” Indeed, it has
been leading for the past few years, as it will in the future.
Reference
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http://www.clean-energy-ideas.com/articles/disadvantages_of_solar_energy.html.
[2] The New York Times Energy &Environment page. "Nuclear Energy" The New York Times. Internet:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/atomic-energy/index.html
[3]The Guardians “ Shale Gas: A burning issue” The Guardians. Internet：
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/13/shale-gas-burning-carbon-fracking
[4] USC News. “USC forum examines California’s energy future.” USC News. Internet:
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