Natural gas traded at an all time high around $15 at December
2005, and its averaging around $13 in 2008.(http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdd.htm).
However, it is trading at about $4~5 recently due to the discovery of shale
gas. What exactly is shale gas? With a depleting crude supply, people have been
always looking for alternative energy source such as nuclear, solar, biodiesel,
hydropower etc, and the next big thing according to researchers and
speculators, it is natural gas. Natural gas can be easily transported via the
form of Liquified Natural Gas which is why it is easy to transport resources
around, unlike some energy form such as solar or hydro power.
A LNG terminal in Louisiana. (Source: www.naturalgasasia.com)
With the finding
of Shale gas, the price of gas has dipped from an all time high of $15 to a low
of 4ish 5 dollars right now which makes a lot of extraction really feasible and
profitable now, and a lot of countries has been introducing CNG cars such as
Iran and Pakistan. With less carbon burned and more economical, natural gas
will inevitably become the next big thing. Attached is a picture of a huge
shale gas field called Eagle Ford Shale in Texas.
Eagle ford shale is discovered by petrohawk in 2008. (Source: www.royaltypartners.com)
However, fracking as everyone knows is harmful to the society, and
there are a lot of organizations out there that were against the use of
fracking to achieve cheap gas. In the real world, ethics/morals and science and
feasibility come into play and contradicts each other. The fact right now is
crude oil is running out, and we are trying to look for the next feasible
alternative energy. As I addressed a little before, the technology we have for
solar, biodiesel is just not enough to replace crude oil, and nuclear energy is
just too risky to replace crude oil, and the next feasible alternative would no
doubt be natural gas even though it is highly controversial due to the harms of
fracking as discussed by other blogs.
I attached a piece of article that further discussed the feasibility of using natural gas as a substitute to oil.
Sources:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Natural-Gas-The-Clean-Alternative.html
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdd.htm
I’ve always loved hearing the controversy surrounding natural gas fracking. There are so many pieces to the debate that it often gets hard to separate the politics from the science. Many believe that fracking fluid pollutes groundwater by seeping through the rock in the earth’s crust; however, geologists argue that it is infeasible for chemicals that are injected at such depth to rise through layers and layers of rock toward drinking water. The stories we hear about people lighting their tap water on fire are almost always linked to naturally occurring gas deposits and not fracking fluid contamination. Problems that have developed directly from fracking are the result of companies cutting corners around safety and regulatory policies. So if the issue is simply with the companies, I think the answer is clear to all of us. We just need to enforce tighter regulations on natural gas corporations regarding environmental safety.
ReplyDeleteHowever, doing so will cause companies to reevaluate the profitability of drilling. It takes an enormous amount of crude oil power, water, and monetary investment to build a natural gas well. It is important that we compare the associated costs of building a well to the potential viability that this “somewhat cleaner” form of energy might give us.