Energy / Natural Gas

• Natural Gas Opportunities Beckon in Asia

  Natural gas is a broken global market. For oil, there's enough import-export capacity worldwide that global prices tend to align closely. In natgas, global markets are fragmented. Leading to disparate pricing in different regions. Just look at the comparison below, from PFC Energy. One of the implications being: if you're going to produce natural gas (or ship it as LNG), find the regions with the top prices. Increasingly, it's looking like this will be Asia. And specifically, southeast Asia. By way of example, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said last Thursday that Vietnam will likely…

• Here's an Unexpected Shale Gas Play

  Argentina. - U.S. producer Apache said Friday it plans to drill a well by year-end to test shale gas potential in the La Calera field of the Neuquen Basin. The area already hosts conventional oil and gas production. A few year's back Argentina would have been the last place on Earth for any kind of gas play. Let alone an experimental shale gas test. Government price fixes in country have resulted in one of the lowest domestic gas prices in the Americas. Currently, gas sells for around $2.50 per MMBtu. But the low price is curing the low price. With no…

• Shale Gas: A Real or Unreal Revolution

  Unfortunately, the title that I wanted to give this short discussion was already used by Professor Paul Stevens. His contribution is called ‘The Shale Gas Revolution: Hype and Reality’ (2010), and I can mention that other doubters include important researchers such as Jude Clemente (http: www. judeclemente.com), who considers some geopolitics of shale gas production,  and Dave Cohen (of ASPO), as well as the most important energy journalist in Scandinavia, Björn Lindahl, who mentions the large water requirements for shale production, and the considerable ‘natural decline’ experienced by shale deposits (which translates into a higher production cost for shale gas…

• Gazprom May Join the Turkmenistan to India Gas Pipeline Project

  Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has said in Turkmenistan that the Gazprom gas giant could join in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas-pipeline project. Sechin, who is accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev on a visit to Turkmenistan, said Gazprom officials are in talks with Turkmenistan about possibly participating in building the nearly 1,700-kilometer pipeline that would carry some 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan, and then further to Fazilka, India. Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov met with Medvedev today at the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi to discuss gas exports to Russia and the Caspian summit coming…

• The Unconventional Gas Red Zone

  Great chart from PFC Energy. Presented at an Institute of Energy Economics, Japan seminar last month. The piece shows the "red zones" in global unconventional gas (shale, tight gas, coal bed methane). Comparing the unconventional sector in North America to six unnamed Asian nations (lettered A to F, so as not to hurt any feelings), across ten categories related to the gas business in each country. Green is good, yellow okay, red poor.   The sticking points are clear.  Service sector capacity is a big issue. Few countries outside North America can provide the quality services needed for unconventional completions.…

• Liquid Gold

  There's a growing divide in the North America gas industry. Liquids or non. The always hawkish energy eye of Colorado's Bentek Energy recently observed the growing effect of liquids-rich plays on the U.S. gas production profile. Speaking at a National Energy Services Association forum last week, Bentek managing director Rusty Braziel noted just how critical liquid-rich gas plays are becoming. Said Braziel, "Some companies could sell their liquids and give the gas away for free and still make money." This is an important point for anyone investing in natural gas. High-value liquids from plays like the Eagle Ford shale in…

• The Next Shale Gas Hotspot

  Shale gas is going global. It's simply too groundbreaking a concept not to spread. Shale is now the name of the gas game in North America. And Europe is starting to see its first significant shale gas wells drilled by majors like Exxon and Halliburton. But shale is also starting to pop up in some under-the-radar places. Asia, for instance. This week, Malaysian deepwater petroleum giant Petronas reported its first-ever quarterly results. In the fine-print, the company noted it will "continue as a global player but with a greater emphasis on domestic deepwater and unconventional plays to arrest domestic production…

• The Gas Cartel Idea: On the Road to Another OPEC?

  As oil sees its image tarnished from the disastrous oil spills that took place off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Dalian, China, and as the most promising oil fields remain off limit to the Western oil majors, gas is gaining in popularity. Gas is present in large quantities and in many countries of less questionable reputation such as in the United States and is also less harmful to the environment than oil. Though gas is not intended to replace oil, some gas-rich countries such as Russia and Iran are strongly advocating for a…

• Turkmenistans Major Natural Gas Find

  Oil and gas supplies and their future use is a major variable for the 21st. century. On the one hand there is a demand to go to renewable sources. On the other hand is that oil and gas will be used for many years to come. Turkmenistan's president said on September 30th. that his country had the capacity to almost quadruple its natural gas exports in the next 20 years and was ready to meet demand from Europe. The discovery of a major gas field was announced three days ago. Turkmenistan is bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west,…

• Two International Natural Gas Opportunities

  The European Union is taking a serious look at natural gas. Last week, the EU ratified a "gas solidarity" bill for Europe. The measure is aimed at ensuring steady and adequate natural gas supplies for all member nations. For the EU, the biggest concern is Russia. Gazprom has showed its willingness over the last few years to use gas as a political lever, cutting off supplies in order to put pressure on Russia's neighbors. Remember January 2006, when Gazprom squeezed the Ukraine, with knock-on reductions in gas supply for several other EU nations. No one in Europe wants to see…