Category Archives: fossil fuels

East Africa Natural Gas –Mozambique and Tanzania

Posted on June 21, 2012 | 1 comment

The US Geological Survey estimates the area from East Africa’s coastal region and stretching out off-shore to the Seychelles holds 441 trillion cubic feet of natural gas which said to be twice as much as Saudi Arabia’s holdings.

The recent gas discoveries in Mozambique are adding up quickly.  Al Arabiya News quotes Duncan Clarke, CEO of the oil consulting company Global Pacific:

 “Houston-based Anadarko in June announced new finds in northern Mozambique which brought its estimated recoverable resources to up to 60 trillion cubic feet. 

The company has proposed $15 billion in investments to set up LNG facilities. Mozambique’s GDP last year was $12 billion. 


Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production in May announced a $1.9-billion deal to buy Cove Energy, whose 8.5-percent stake in the Mozambican fields is currently up for sale. 

Two weeks earlier Italy’s ENI, the other large operator in the country’s Rovuma basin, said recent discoveries boosted its recoverable resources up to 52 trillion cubic feet. 
”

Tim Dodson, vice president for exploration at Norway’s Statoil on the company website said that Statoil and Britain’s BG together have discovered around 16 trillion cubic feet in Tanzania.

There are issues for the development of these fields including availability of infrastructure (sea and air ports, roads, housing, etc), lack of skilled work forces, and up-dated petroleum legislation.  There is another concern according to Silas Olang, East African coordinator from resources watchdog Revenue Watch Institute,  “Corruption is a big challenge.”

We are hearing more of plans to build of new facilities to liquefy natural gas and ports to store and ship the LNG around the world.  Will the price of gas get so low due to availability of their own indigenous sources that the markets for this gas from East Africa might take years to develop?  If the Europeans continue to resist fracking, that part of the world might be a market for East African LNG.  Russia is certainly going to make for stiff competition for the European market as they have pipelines delivering gas to Europe right now.

To read more click here.

cbdakota

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Posted in Alternative Energy, East Africa Resources, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Off Shore Resources, Oil and Gas Exploration

Shale-Gas Drilling In China

Posted on June 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Royal Dutch Shell says the results of early drilling in China for shale-gas looks to be a profitable proposition. In March, Shell signed a production-sharing contract to explore, develop and produce shale gas in China.  According to a Fox Business News Report, Shell will:

“…. apply its technology, operational expertise and global experience to jointly develop shale gas with state-controlled China National Petroleum Corp. over a 3,500-square-kilometer area in the Fushun-Yongchuan block in the Sichuan Basin.”

Shell is not alone in wanting to get into the Chinese shale-gas business as some experts are saying that China has as much potential shale-gas as does the US.  It is reported that Chevron and Total SA (the French multinational oil and gas company) are also seeking relationships with the Chinese.

To read more click here.

 

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Oil and Gas Exploration, Peak Oil

Massive Canadian Shale-gas Field Discovered

Posted on June 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

In a remote corner of northeastern British Columbia, a massive shale-gas field has been discovered by the Apache Corp.   The field is estimated to have 48 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.  According to Reuters:

The company has drilled three wells into its holdings in the Liard Basin in British Columbia, just south of where the province’s northern border meets the borders of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Only one of the three wells drilled in the region was treated with the multiple-stage hydraulic fracturing process that has been key to unlocking North America’ prolific shale-gas reserves. That well, which was “fracked” six times, delivered 21.3 million cubic feet of gas per day over its first thirty days of production, which Apache said was the most prolific shale-gas test well ever drilled.

This announcement of the shale-gas find was part of a presentation made by Apache Corp’s John Bedingfield, VP for Worldwide Exploration.    At that presentation he also discussed other activities as follows:

Along with its Liard field, the company said its 580,000 acres of land in the Mississipian Lime field in Kansas and Nebraska could contain as much as 2 billion barrels of oil while its holding in Montana’s Williston Basin may hold another 1 billion barrels.  As well, it’s targeting as much as 1.3 billion barrels of oil in Alaska’s Cook Inlet and 1.4 billion barrels from its holding off the shore of Kenya. It will drill in both regions later this year.  Apache said its holdings in western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle could also hold another 5.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent while the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico hold 3.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

As the supply of natural gas and oil increases, the prices are sure to drop. The price of natural gas in the US has already taken a header as major discoveries have been made in recent years.  Fuel for the production of electricity is tending away from coal to natural gas.   This move is more than just low natural gas prices as it is also being force by new EPA regulations (which may be reversed if Mitt Romney wins the upcoming election.).

Crude oil is more readily transportable from wellhead to the user giving it a wider world market.  But fracking discoveries in other parts of the world may bring supplies that exceed demand and thus lowering of crude oil prices as well.  Then the floor price will probably be set by the cost to produce and make a profit when getting oil by fracking.

cbdakota

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Posted in Alternative Energy, cap and trade, Domestic Energy, Energy Development, EPA, fossil fuels, Oil and Gas Exploration

BP Tries For Natural Gas In Jordan

Posted on June 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

BP has begun drilling for natural gas in the Risha field in eastern Jordan near the border with Iraq.  In 2009 BP was given 4 years to explore for natural gas in this field.   After two years of preparation, BP says they expect the to take 3 or 4 months of drilling to prove out.  Jordan is hoping that this effort with BP will lead to the discovery of extensive recoverable gas reserves, which will help cut dependence on oil imports to fuel Jordan’s power sector and industries. According to a posting in Al Arabiya:

The government strategy calls for Risha to produce 330 million cubic feet of gas per day by 2015. The field has a current modest daily output of about 18 million cubic feet. The kingdom, which imports most of its energy, is struggling to meet electricity demand, which is growing by more than 7 percent per year, due to fast growing population and rising industrial needs.

cbdakota

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Posted in Energy Development, fossil fuels, Middle East Resources, Oil and Gas Exploration

The Ill-informed Bishop And The Wind Turbines

Posted on June 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Environment, fossil fuels, Global Temperatures, Government Regulations, Government Revenues, Windpower

EPA Gives Honda Fit EV A 118 MPG (eq) Rating

Posted on June 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

The EPA gave the Honda Fit EV a 118 mpg equivalency rating. This is their best rating yet for a passenger car.  My daughter owns a Fit, IC engine, and gets great mileage and has experienced very low maintenance and up keep costs.  It’s a very good vehicle. But most all of the EPA rating mileage equivalent for EVs and hybrids have come down as the owners face the real world of driving.  The EPA is rating the Leaf at 73 mpg equivalent.  Read my posting of a Tennessee Leaf owner’s trip  here.

The new EPA rating for the Chevy Volt is 38 mpg versus the former 35 mpg.  This change stemmed from an upgraded Li-ion battery that can hold a 16.5 kWH charge versus the former 16 kWH.   Added a half hour to the battery charge time however. To read more click here.

cbdakota

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, CAFE Standards, Electric Vehicles, EPA, fossil fuels

Eastern Med Oil and Gas Discoveries—Israel and Cyprus

Posted on June 8, 2012 | 3 comments

Natural gas and oil producers normally are not the way that Israel and Cyprus are characterized, but recent discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean are changing that perception.

The Levantine Basin in Eastern Mediterranean (Source: USGS)

Israel  Two years ago, in June 2010, the Leviathan, the largest gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean was discovered by Houston’s Noble Energy.  The natural gas reserves in that find that are in Israeli territorial waters are estimated to be something in the range of 25 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).   Some experts are estimating that there might also be up to 600 million barrels of oil.  And that is not all.  The Israeli Tamar field is believed to contain more that 8 Tcf of natural gas. The Energy Tribune’s posting by Michael Economides notes that:

A statement released on Sunday by the Israel Opportunity energy exploration partnership said that prospecting at the Pelagic group of deep-sea fields, west of Haifa, showed a potential of 6.7 Tcf of gas and 1.4 billion barrels of oil.  

These finds are very timely, because Egypt has ended its contract to supply gas to Israel. 

 Cyprus  In December 2011 Noble Energy announced that their first well in the Cypriot Economic Zone of the Leviathan Field contains up to 9 Tcf of natural gas.   Energy Tribune reports:

The size of the ultimate recoverable gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to the United States Geological Survey, is of the order of 200 Tcf of natural gas and 3.7 billion barrels of oil. A dozen new Cypriot blocks, currently in the process of being offered to international bidders, will almost certainly add 50 Tcf, perhaps 75 Tcf to the already discovered.

On-shore delivery from the Levantine basin will not be easy.  The gas is located about 20,000 feet below sea level —6,000 feet to sea bottom and then an additional 14,000 feet of required drilling.) Further it is believed that the gas will need to be liquefied and delivered on shore by tanker because it will be too deep to put in piping. The size and cost of these facilities are the sort of things that can be managed by large oil firms but to date, these companies seem reluctant to work with the Israelis for fear of antagonizing their Arab partners.

The solution as outlined by Economides is:

Israel will need Cyprus to exploit its resources by employing the right size company to construct e.g., LNG or gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants. The size of the resources cannot allow them to even remotely be consumed domestically; export is the only option. The Cypriot and Israel reservoirs should be unified; they are geologically contiguous anyway. Cyprus, in turn, will need the shield provided by Israel in relation to saber rattling Turkey. The Israeli-Cypriot marriage is made in oil and gas heaven.

cbdakota

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Off Shore Resources, Oil and Gas Exploration

Not Much Joy In EV Land—May Sales Data

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 1 comment

The Chevy Volt hybrid May sales were 1680 up from 1462 in April.  The forecast annual sales of 45,000 seem to be a stretch with only 7057 Volts sold year-to-date.  A little arithmetic says that about 38,000 Volts need to be sold in the remaining 7 months of 2012.

The Nissan Leaf sales of 510 in May were up slightly over the 370 sold in May. Year-to-date leaf sales are 2613. The Nisan people maintain that they will sell 20,000 Leafs in 2012.  But the still under construction Smyrna, Tennessee plant, said to be capable of making 150,000 Leafs annually, is not scheduled to startup until late this year.  Until then, Nissan will supply the market from Japan.

Underperforming would seem to be the proper word for hybrid and EV sales in the US.  High gas prices and still the sales are anemic.  One more example of Obama’s costly green energy plan not living up to his overblown promises.

cbdakota

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, CAFE Standards, Electric Vehicles, EPA, fossil fuels, Green Jobs, Personal Automobiles

Solar Panels Don’t Work

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 2 comments

Ray Burgess, the President & CEO at Solar Power Technologies Inc posted on the Aol Energy website, “Solar Panels Don’t Work. And No One Knows.” That is a provocative title.  Burgess said: “Solar panels do not work that well. Often far below expectations.  And few know it. Not the owners who depend on power. Not the bankers who finance it. Not the brokers who insure it.”

The economic models that are used to finance, insure and subsidize solar farms assume the solar panels degrade about 0.5% per year. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says that they can degrade as much as 4.5% a year or more.

At this point you may be wondering who or what is the NREL.  According to Wikipedia they are: “The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden, Colorado is the United States primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency, research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).”   This is not an organization that opposes renewable energy.”

Burgess adds: The latest issue of the leading industry trade journal Photovoltaics International, asks the question: “What is the real quality of the products I am buying?”  Short answer: Nobody knows. In Italy last year, “they discovered that after one year in the field, over 90% of the (solar panels) from a one megawatt project began to delaminate and ended up on the ground.”   “Delaminate: Scientific talk for falling apart. And these panels had all the standard certifications.”

Burgess’ company sells systems that monitor performance of solar farms.  The company’s systems presumably can detect individual problem that are causing substandard performance.  He lists below, some of the performance inhibitors.

“Solar production in the field can go bad for dozens and dozens of reasons: An errant golf ball. A passing flock of geese. Bullets. Leaves. Shadows. Dirt. If a leaf or bird dropping prevents the sun from hitting part of your solar array, that knocks out solar production in an area 36 times the obstruction.”

Now I don’t know how that multiplier works, but I will take him at his word.

The above along with the problem of the inability to schedule energy production due to variability of the Sun, makes this form of energy less appealing.

cbdakota

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Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Domestic Energy, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Government Regulations, Green Jobs, solar cells

US Asserts Interest In Arctic

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 1 comment

According to a story in Reuters, “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will assert U.S. interest in the Arctic, where the prospects for abundant oil, gas and new trade routes has been likened to a modern-day gold rush, when she visits the region on Saturday.”  (1 June 12)

Interest is high with nations worldwide vying for access to the Arctic.  “Norway has moved its military operational headquarters into the Arctic Circle, China has development plans for Iceland and countries, including Russia, are laying claim to exploration rights in the once pristine Barents Sea.”

Map courtesy of WorldAtlas.com

It is all about energy.  While our politicians dilly-dally about the oil in ANWR, and fuss over any attempt to develop the resources in the Arctic area, the World’s nations are not waiting our approval.

More comments from the Reuters article:  “Even Russia, the largest provider of oil and gas to Europe is keen to accelerate gas production from its offshore gas fields as soon as possible, or as soon as economically viable.”

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds about 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas resources.

“All the major powers are positioning themselves for this development,” said Ole Arve Misund, director of the University Centre in Svalbard. “The resource has become more available and prospects have already been opened in Norway, Russia, Canada, the U.S. and Greenland.”

ExxonMobil is working with Rosneft to develop blocks in the Kara Sea, off Siberia, despite sea ice for up to 300 days a year.

Gazprom is also working with Total and Norway’s Statoil on the 4-trillion-cubic-metre Shtokman gas field 550 km offshore. Statoil has also established a strong Arctic record with its Skrugard and Havis finds, holding up to 600 million barrels of oil.   

Ole Arve Misund is quoted above saying that all major powers are positioning themselves for this development.  But one of the powers, the present US Administration may be deeply distressed by this major source of fossil fuels and who knows what game they will play to prevent exploitation of these resources.

cbdakota

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Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Domestic Energy, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Off Shore Resources, Oil and Gas Exploration, Sea Ice