WriteUpZone: gas hydrates

The hottest topic in the energy debate these days is the replacement of the fossil fuels by alternate energysources. The question “Will fossil fuels ever be replaced by renewable energy sources?” has transformed with time to “Can fossil fuels still prevent the advent of the renewable energy sources?”

According to US EIA Energy Statistics 2007, Fossil fuels account for 86.4% of the total world energy consumption whereas non-fossil fuels grab the space for only 13.6%. The comparison used to be perceived as a merely ridiculous myth back in the time as renewable energy sources – such as solar, bio-fuels, wind, tidal seemed laughably inadequate as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, as the clock ticked its minutes away, the energy requirements kept increasing at a pace of 2.3% per year! The contrast now has raised serious concerns in the energy world. The renewable(s) are becoming cheaper and efficient in different ways and that too in a climate, where fossil fuels are becoming increasingly expensive and hazardous. However, with the existing technology at the perspective, fossil fuels are the very commodities that present the greatest opportunities in meeting energy demands, within financial constraints.

So, if you think that world has run out of oil, then THINK AGAIN! This globe has much more oil to offer than what mathematicians can calculate or what speculators can predict. Nature has hidden the treasure in abundance located at different parts of the world. A report by World Oil Outlook states that fossil fuels will continue to remain the satisfiers of more than 80% of our energy demands till 2030, in which coal is expected to maintain its significance as the second most important energy source. The need to discover new oil frontiers and to work towards the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbon resources has to get fulfilled for the sake of human survival on this planet. As the oil fields in Middle East & other oil rich regions obtain maturity, new oil & gas bearing regions are ready to take their positions. Delineations of some of the new oil worlds is as follows:

A F R I C A

A very promising zone is the West African part of the globe. The four geologic provinces of this region which include: The Senegal, The Gulf of Guinea, The Niger Delta and The West Central Coast, have been researched upon by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) World Assessment Team 2000. The provinces lie upon the North-West and West-Central African coast extending offshore to a water depth of 2.9 miles. Geologically, the Senegal Basin is of Middle Jurassic to Holocene Epoch age whereas the Gulf of Guinea is characterized by the tectonic transformations. More than 30,000 ft of sediments pertain under the Niger Delta and lastly, the West-Central Coastal occupies the Aptian Salt Basin instigated by both rift and sag tectonics. The assessment gave forward the notion that these areas encompass 71.5 billion barrels of oil, 235.2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 10.2 billion barrels of Natural Gas Liquids.

B R A Z I L

The world’s fifth largest country, Brazil, has the potential to become one of the world’s largest producers of oil if it can tap its reserves deep under the South Atlantic. It possesses the biggest offshore oil reserves in the pre-salt area off its South-East Coast. The consecutive pre-salt discoveries in Brazil have made it the rising star of the Western Hemisphere for the Oil and Gas industry.

The coast of Rio de Janerio is 290 km long. High overhead the Coast, Gas is flaring whereas deep under the coast, there is enough oil to fill 330,000 barrels. The fossilized oceans in Brazil strike more than 6.5 billion barrels worth in the Lula Field alone. In 2007, State-run oil company Petrobars had found between 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of Light oil and Gas in the Tupi field which is 160 miles off the coast of Rio de Janerio. This discovery of Tupi is the World’s greatest oil field and the largest ever in the deep waters. This field is speculated to ramp up to 1 million barrels a day of production in 2020. Petrobars has assigned Brazil as the New Oil Superpower. The South American country, in future, is believed to play the roles of Oil Majors, Oil service providers and beyond. Amidst the unrest in the Middle East, President Obama has already pledged that United States will be a major customer of the Brazilian Oil in the coming years. These monstrous reserves are certainly more than just a jackpot for the country which ranks 69th out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s annual ranking of perceived corruption. The country must nip its corruption in the bud and cash itself on the moment to lead not only in extraction of the reserves and export of raw materials but also in technology.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Furthermore, Oil Shale reserves are what America’s strategic future is all about. The whole land covered under the red, white and blue flag owns enough recoverable oil and gas that can just nullify the quantity of reserves Middle East has been occupying since a long time.

A study by the Rand Corporation estimates the sedimentary rock in the corner where Utah borders Colorado and Wyoming holds about 800 billion barrels. That's three times the sizes of the two largest reserves in the world. Venezuela’s which account to 297 billion barrels and Saudi Arabia's oil reserves which are the second largest claimed in the world, estimated to be 267 billion barrels. Thus, America’s oil shale reserves are enormous, totaling at least 1.5 trillion barrels of oil. That’s five times the reserves of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia! And yet, no one is producing commercial quantities of oil from these vast deposits. If oil shale were to become commercially profitable, its impact on the ambient regions would be immense. Oil companies and the U.S. government are currently taking a slow and cautious approach to oil shale, but the development process would get accelerated if global factors made it politically and economically advantageous to put more money and energy into accessing this resource.

A R C T I C

This is not just it! The new oil race is predicted to be led by the riches present in the Arctic which include new basins and reservoirs buried several thousand meters under the seabed or mountain ranges containing viscous oil and sour gas. It is believed that 25% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie beneath the Arctic Ocean which, in the recent times, has become economically accessible. The future of the Arctic will be less white wilderness, more black gold.

The first assessment of oil and gas resources in north of the Arctic Circle, carried out by American geologists, reveals that underneath the ice, the region may contain as much as a fifth of the world's undiscovered yet recoverable oil and natural gas reserves. This includes 90 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply the world for three years at current consumption rates, or to supply America for 12, and 1,670 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, which is equal to about a third of the world's known gas reserves. West Siberian Basin (651 tcf), the East Barents Basin(318 tcf) and Arctic Alaska(221 tcf) are speculated to be the most prolific areas for gas while Arctic Alaska (30 BBOE), the Amerasia Basin(9.7 BBOE) and the East Greenland Rift(8.9 BBOE) are expected to yield the biggest reserves of oil.

N E W Z E A L A N D

Subsequently, an emerging oil giant is New Zealand which is recognized as one of the few remaining high potential untapped oil and gas frontiers in the world. New Zealand’s oil sector is at crossroads. Most of the exploration revolves around the Taranaki Basin, which is the limelight of the world’s most prominent international explorers. With reported proven oil reserves of 528 million barrels and proven gas reserves of 6.9 trillion cubic feet discovered, companies are firmly positioned with their fertile hunting grounds in Taranaki. The East Coast Basin exhibits dramatic oil and gas seeps, and exploration data reveals numerous multi-zone conventional targets at depths between 250 to 2000 meters. The oil-rich fractured shale source-rock formations in the East Coast Basin are a widespread exploration target with major unconventional oil and gas potential. The full potential of the basins still to be ascertained could be from anywhere between 600-1200 million barrels. New Zealand is a place worth to watch out for when it comes to oil prospects.

P A K I S T A N

Finally, our homeland Pakistan is not out of this new oil race either. Our offshore is surrounded by oil rich fields like Mumbai High, Iranian & Middle East Oil fields. Also a major portion of Baluchistan too remains unexplored. According to the USGS report, Pakistan has tremendous reserves of Gas Hydrates. Yet, Pakistan produces about 60,000 barrels of oil per day which only meets approximately one sixth of the country’s current oil requirement. The prevailing crises of Energy in Pakistan can be minimized or can even get eliminated if natural resources of the country are used efficiently.

Coal too is keeping pace with consumer electric demand and EIA has stated that coal will continue to feed 45-50% of the world’s total power generation in 2025. Pakistan is enriched with hundreds of God gifted reserves especially in Sindh and Balochistan, one of which is Thar Coal reserves. Thar is the 9^th largest desert of the world with 7^th largest coal reserves having 175 billion tons. The drawback adhered to the coal’s usage as a power generation source is that it is a dirty fuel. This defect can be clearly whitewashed by the implementation of Clean Coal Technology that aims to commercialize the processes to help control SOx and NOx from power plant emission. The staggering fact is that if all the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia & Iran are put together they are still way lesser than 50 billion ton of oil which is equivalent to the 175 billion tons of coal reserves present at Thar. The quantity is also equivalent to over 2000 TCF of gas which is 42 times greater than the total gas reserves that have been discovered in Pakistan.

Nobody really knows when the last drop of oil, lump of coal or cubic foot of natural gas will be collected from the Earth but one thing is certain, that this supposition is far distant from the present scenario. The foregone conclusion is that the earth is not short of the natural resources such as crude oil and natural gas. As a matter of fact, it is the very earth which has accommodated too much the quantity of those fossil fuels that extraction of them has become an arduous job. There is still a bright future ahead of the prevailing major resources which lies in the Unconventional reservoirs and Coal resources, both driven by technology advancement and economic parameters. All of it will depend on how well we manage our energy demands. Hence, efficient technological development in the respective field is the only rescue from a future deadlock.

WRITTEN BY: M. TAHA JAVAID

REFERENCES:

http://www.theworld.org/2010/06/brazils-hidden-oil-reserves/

http://www.tagoil.com/new-zealand-operations.asp

http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2011_02_08_Exploring_New_Avenues_For_Oil.html

http://publications.total.com/2009-regards/mobile/en/page50.html

http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/515028/methane-as-discussed-in-Neptune-planet

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/neptune.htm

http://archives.dawn.com/2005/01/21/nat6.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/riches-in-the-arctic-the-new-oil-race-876816.html

http://www.london-research-and-development.com/Arctic%20Oil%20Spill%20Detection.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5424033