Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Development is seen in many countries as a way to secure energy supplies that
is independent of events in the more volatile parts of the world where most of
the existing gas and oil reserves are located.
1.1 History
In 1821 shale gas was produced from a natural seepage in the Appalachian
Mountains at Fredonia, New York, USA. It was trapped and piped in hollow
logs where it was used to light homes and businesses. The profit margins
were small and small local operators exploited it as a ''cottage industry''.
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s it was clear that the political situation in
the Middle East was changing. There had been Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and
1973 and the situation led to dramatically increased prices for oil as well as
supply shortages. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC)
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also rose to international prominence during the 1970s, as its
Member Countries took control of their domestic petroleum industries and
acquired a major say in the pricing of crude oil on world markets. On two
occasions, oil prices rose steeply in a volatile market, triggered by the Arab
oil embargo in 1973 and the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
OPEC broadened its mandate with the first Summit of Heads of State and
Government in Algiers in 1975, which addressed the plight of the poorer
nations and called for a new era of cooperation in international relations in
the interests of world economic development and stability. This led to the
establishment of the OPEC Fund for International Development in 1976.
Member Countries embarked on ambitious socio-economic development
schemes. It was against this background of volatile oil prices and trying to
ensure security of supply that, in 1976, the United States Department of
Energy initiated the Eastern Shales Project at a cost of up to $200 million to
evaluate the geology, geochemistry and petroleum production engineering of
non-conventional petroleum, including shale gas. Important reports estab-
lished findings from what was then the only shale gas production in the
world,
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based on the Devonian and Mississippian shales in the Appalachian
basin.
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These reports led to the establishment of the Gas Research Institute
and also stimulated research at Imperial College in the United Kingdom
looking at evaluating potential resources. The geology of the plate tectonics
of the Atlantic Ocean implied that the continuation of the Appalachian basin
extended across into the UK and on into mainland Europe (see Figure 1).
Imperial College focussed on the US paradigm of ''cottage industry'' and
reviewed potential shale gas extraction from throughout the rock strata.
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The
study concluded that Pre-Cambrian and Lower Palaeozoic shales were gen-
erally too metamorphosed to be potential reservoirs and most Mesozoic and
younger organic-rich shales and mudstones were deemed too immature to
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OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organisation, created at the Baghdad Conference on
September 10-14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela; membership grew to
13 by 1975.
