Unlocking the complexities of shale gas
Geoscience resources may hold the key to making the most of the shale gas revolution already sweeping the US.
Global Talent Pool Migration in the Oil and Gas Space 12:42PM GMT 24 Nov 2011
Challenges with global oil supply, high demand for gas and the need for energy security have led to interest in the exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons (such as coal bed methane, shale oil, heavy oil, and tight gas; shale gas is an example of the latter). Such unconventional forms of hydrocarbons have been slowly gaining value relative to their conventional cousins for the past 20 years. Recent developments in 3D seismic, horizontal drilling and subsurface fracturing techniques, have allowed shale gas to be produced more economically than previously, when technologies were less advanced.
Shale gas basins predominate in the US, and Canadian geological landscapes, however, known basin reserves are being investigated across Europe, Asia and Australia. Economic recovery of the gas, could lead to independence of major gas importers away from their traditional supply source, altering exploration trends and global economies.
Oil and Gas: Global talent pool migration in the oil and gas spaceIn 2009 the US overtook Russia as the world’s largest producer of natural gas; much of this rise is due to shale gas production. By 2020 it is estimated that 50% of gas produced in the United States will be sourced from shale gas. In the UK current reserves are estimated to rival remaining conventional offshore gas reserves (some 20 billion barrels equivalent of oil).
As with all advances in hydrocarbon exploration and production, shale gas is not free from controversy. Environmental impacts, such as gas seepage into ground water supplies causing contamination, and minor scale earthquakes close to the drilling and fracturing activity have been sited as causes for concern.
RELATED ARTICLESGlobal talent pool migration in the oil and gas space 23 Aug 2011Whilst exciting, the exploration developments pose further challenges to the highly skilled, global oil and gas workforce, in particular the most niche sector of the business, geoscientists and environmentalists.
The initial and overwhelming success of shale gas production was made possible by software solutions, allowing increasingly complex deviated wells to be drilled in relatively simple geological settings. However, production for shale gas is front loaded and soon the initially lucrative return on investment was diminished by falling gas prices (due to an increase in demand). Complex directional drilling became too expensive on this basis and as a result reserves had to be targeted more effectively, in term of their size and longevity to produce.
As such the role of the geologist becomes increasing important, alongside their geophysicist, and seismic stratigrapher counterparts. Initially geologists can undertake facies recognition through identification on core and correlation through well logs. Geophysicists can tie back their interpretation to well log information, and away from it with additional support from palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from seismic stratigraphy. Robust workflows such as these require highly skilled professionals with many years of experience.
The planar nature of the reservoirs requires experienced drillers, versed with horizontal and directional drilling, a complex and labour intensive process for shale gas. Subsurface fracturing, has unquantifiable environmental impacts, whose investigation may require significant environmental assessment. Currently the US is the only true location where lessons may be learned on the subject. Here a number of lost time incidents have already occurred, along with a number of serious human injuries from blow outs. Perhaps it is because there is a lack of geological and geo-hazardous information and data gathered which has been incremental in the occurrence of these incidents?
Geologist, Geophysicists, Stratigraphers, experienced Drillers, and Environmental Impact Assessors are expensive commodities, and difficult to extract from their current organizations. With multiple, highly lucrative unconventional hydrocarbon opportunities dominating operators' portfolios on a global scale, there are likely to be clear migratory patterns of eligible professionals seeking to gain experience in this sector. Indeed, the European, and Eastern European opportunity may be impacted by migration to the US, or further absorbed by the number of offshore decommissioning projects set for the North Sea Assets.
Inevitably there will be movement to where the highest salaries and day rates are paid, but will that mean there may be a lack of resources to unlock the complexities of extracting tight gas from shale, in global locations where energy sustainability and security is critical?
