Unconventional Gas - Inst of Energy Feb 2013 V2b

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3/5/2013

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Gary Howorth
Founder

Institute of Energy
February 2013
Unconventional Gas in Europe.
Where is it going?
Unconventional gasspecifically shale
gasis a revolution in the making. This
discovery will change the course of world
history McClendon CEO Chesapeake
Energy Dec 2009 - United Nations
climate conference Copenhagen.
Forward Looking Views
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Many Intricate Parts to this Debate
Prices
Shale gas (Dev & Expl)
Terms
Timing
LNG
Volatility
Prices, Markets
Russian Gas
Demand
Renewables
EMR
Elec
GDP
Energy Eff
Supply
R & D Taxes,
technology ..
GDP..
US Asia
Labour Skills
Regulation
Security of
Supply
Environment
Carbon
Others
CHEAP GAS???
Introduction

What is Unconventional gas
The size of the resource
The US Experience and does it apply here?
US shale gas and Exports
Unconventional gas - Myths and legends
Its impact on the environment
What might future technology do for its deployment
Our view on price and development impacts

So whats Unconventional Gas
Natural gas produced from shale is often referred to as
unconventional - type of rock type in which it is found.
Tight sands, shale or coal (CBM) are now the focus of
unconventional exploration.
Conventional oil and gas refers to hydrocarbons sourced in
sandstone or limestone
Techniques used to extract hydrocarbons are essentially the
same.
Horizontal drilling and fracture stimulation technology can
enhance the natural fractures and recover gas from rocks
Can frac in CBM
Onshore but also offshore
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Hydrates

Gas hydrates are viewed by some as the
energy source of the future. These
commonly occurring formations have more
energy content than the rest of the worlds
fossil fuel resources combined.
Furthermore, they are distributed in every
oceanic basin with proximity to nearly
every major gas-consuming market of the
world.

Hydrates are essentially blocks of ice with
methane trapped inside. Conventional
drilling techniques have so far proved
ineffective due to the physical crystalline
structure and relatively shallow exposed
areas in which hydrates are often found
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Unconventional Gas Reserves A wide spectrum
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Adapted from DECC

Hydrates
Definitions
A tight-gas reservoir is commonly defined as is a rock with
matrix porosity of 10% or less and permeability of 0.1 milli
Darcy or less, exclusive of fracture permeability.
Unconventional wells produce from low-porosity sandstones
and carbonate reservoirs
Effective bulk permeability in gas shale is typically much less
than 0.1 milli darcies (md), although exceptions exist where the
rock is naturally fractured. Porosity 0.2-10%*

Fracture porosity 2-7% effective fracture permeability's 7-35
#

md

* high end not typical # by experiment

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World Resources
Source EIA 2011
Technically Recoverable

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Europe (with Algeria)
similar reserves to
USA.
So could replicate US
production profile ?
Cost structure
different
Shale gas production
eyed in 2020 or later
in many European
areas
Credible resource
estimates in 3-4 years


Tcf
Onshore Non-Conventional Supply
Price sensitivity is extremely important to un-conventional sources
With sustained US gas prices above $4-6/mmbtu, economic gas reserves
available in NA could be as high as 400 Tcf (Technical reserves higher)
US Shale gas costs in US $5-6/mmbtu European reserves likely to be
much higher because of labor and other costs. Some estimates suggest
8-12$/mmbtu. This is expensive! Maybe higher. Shale is not cheap
Euro well $6-14/mmbtu

N. America Gas Supply Cost Curve, $/mmbtu
$0
$1
$2
$3
$4
$5
$6
$7
$8
$9
$10
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 425 450
Tcf
$
/
m
m
b
t
u
CBM Supply
Curve
Conventional
Supply Curve
Tight Sands
Supply Curve
Total Canadian
Supply Curve
Shale Supply
Curve
Hydrates
Current
UK/European gas
prices around
$9/mmbtu
UK Studies But many other places at same stage
The lowest risk shale gas exploration is
where shale gas prospects are associated
with conventional hydrocarbon
fields/Exploration
Used analogies to estimate shale gas
reserves good start but
Barnett Shale is probably not a good
analogue for the UK
Wells in the Conasauga Shale play (AL, GA)
produce 80-100 mcfd, and are hence not as
prolific as in the Barnett or younger shales in
the USA.
While US shale seams are quite thick and
relatively easy to access, those in Europe
are thin and fractured, making it more
difficult to extract the embedded gas.
Scotland about 10% of 21 Tcf
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US Shale Gas Production
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18 times increase in decade
12,328 mmscfd (4.5 tcf/yr) 40% more than UK Demand
127 Bcm per year

Might expect it to get to 1100 mmscfd UK if UK ramped up in the same way but
Circa 11000 -15000 wells
EIA Unconventional US production 74%
Shale gas 60% of Unconventional -2035
Key Success Factors for Uncoventionals
Lessons from US
Relentless search for better technology
Reduction in operating Costs, Drill times
R&D commitment
Tight Spacing's improves economics
Good Reservoir characteristic high initial flows
Market access (Prices)
Water Management (In Europe and more so in the future in
US)
In early years Govt Support subsidy but for how long and
at what cost?

Unlike the US, in most of Europe mineral rights do not belong
to private land owners but to the state
US has a lot of small independent energy companies that are
used to taking a risk on these projects




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Tax Breaks

George Osborne has fired the starting gun on a new "dash
for gas" that will partly use tax breaks for shale production,
though the government admitted it did not know whether future
gas prices would rise or fall.

But what impact?
Depends on what he does?





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US Government Backing. Years of Research

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US Tax Breaks
In 1980, Congress passed the Windfall Profits Tax Act, which
among other things created the Section 29 production tax
credit for unconventional gas, providing an incentive of $0.50
per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas produced from
unconventional resources to claim a tax credit equal $3 (in
1978 dollars) per barrel or Btu oil barrel equivalent. Equivalent
to $1.50/mmbtu today

For almost 100 years, two very important tax incentives have
been available for businesses that explore for and produce oil
and gas: (1) the percentage depletion allowance and (2) the
deduction for intangible drilling costs the costs associated with
a nonproductive well or dry hole (which make up about 80
percent of all wills drilled) are deductible when incurred and
can offset other sources of income
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Others Experience (NA CBM)
CBM production began in the early 1980s, fueled primarily by
Section 29 of the Federal Windfall Profits Act of 1980 (Non-
conventional Fuels Tax Credit) for wells drilled between 1980
and 1992.
In 1997, the act provided a tax credit of $1.02/mmbtu of CBM
recovered, almost half the price of gas at that time.
In the United States,
CBM accounts for almost
10% of total domestic
production. In Queensland
Australia, it accounts for
30% of production.
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EPA 1997
US Supply Demand

Currently low prices circa $3/mmbtu
2014-2015 Supply/Demand back into balance - maybe
But depends on GDP growth
Prices Low not because of cheap shale gas, but oversupply

US LNG Exports
LNG exports would reduce oversupply and raise prices
Contentious debate in US not a done deal need Govt
approval
Exports will improve US prices by $1/mmbtu
Costs for export are high
With current Asia prices Exporters would prefer


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More Myth than Fact ?
A small U.S. oil co (KS) performed the first commercial frac job
on a conventional gas well using 1,000 gallons of napalm as
well as sand from the Arkansas River.
Practice of pumping small volumes (1,000 to 10,000 gallons) of
toxic fluid into vertical wells (2,400 feet) using about 600
horsepower of pressure is indeed 60 years old. But now the
Industry:
Injects millions of gallons of water into wellbores two miles
deep
Uses Horizontal wells
Pumps to 40,000 hp
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Recent Advances
Only in the last two decades have four different technologies
made it possible to fracture deep shale rock formations one to
two kilometres underground. They include
directional drilling :
fracturing fluids including sand, water and toxic chemicals;
slick water (the use of gels and high fluid volumes)
multi-well pad and cluster drilling (the drilling of six to nine wells
from one industrial platform).
The first horizontal shale gas well was drilled in 1991; the first
slick water fracture took place in 1996; and the use of cluster
drilling from one pad didn't happen until 2007.

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Shale gas fracturing is at best a decade old - based
on four new technologies that are still being refined.

Until a decade ago it just wasn't possible to open fractures in
walls of shale rock 20 metres thick a kilometre under the
ground.
Of 75-100 oil and gas firms in US, only 6-12 had any
experience combining all four technologies.
Research on its impacts is scant. Nor is there a standard
operating practice due to its cost
Given the relative newness of the multi-faceted technology, its
health impacts have not been adequately explored either.
EPA (US) has only just recently started the compilation of a
comprehensive fraccing chemical database
Some of these fluids are proprietary and companies may have
an excuse not to disclose

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Geological Unknowns and Uncertainties including:
How Deeply they Penetrate;
Their Vertical Extents;
Their Symmetries About the Wellbore;
Their Geometries At the Perimeter;
Which Directions They Go;
What their Conductivities Are.



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Makes optimal reservoir engineering difficult
Technology Impact Other Issues
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Steel
Prices
Labour/
rigs
Costs
Technology
Development
Rate
R & D
Govt
subsidies
Technology has reduced drill times
and costs dramatically
But other factors at play could
counteract these gains

Technology Focus USA

Micro generation
process to convert ethane to petrochemicals
process for converting natural gas to Dimethyl Ether(DME) as a
transportation fuel
Flowback water filter press treatment system for shale wastewater
hydrocarbon and cement integrity detection for groundwater and the
freshwater casing
dust control technology for existing sand equipment
Microchannel Fischer Tropsh natural gas to liquid fuel well head application
Rotary compressor that allows natural gas & NGL to be piped together from
the well head
Sequential precipitation and fractional crystallization treatment of shale
wastewater
Mobile real-time site monitoring and security

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Note: Focus on
access issues
So What Could Technology Do. (With Steel and
Rig Price Adjustments)

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Fast Development
Scenario
Environmental
Methane Capture
Water Treatment
Infrastructure major problem in US
Well Spacing - Rockies
Is shale more Carbon intensive than other
Earthquakes
Robert Howarth Cornell Methane Leakage
at Shale


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Shale Vs Conventional Gas
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Move Sliders to change assumptions
Full screen view required
Shale Vs Conventional Gas
Well productivity Key
Might be better
environmentally to take gas
from Ukraine
Shale UK Upstream
emissions up to 33% higher
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GWP = 25
GWP = 45
Seems that from an Environmental point of view
that shale gas from Ukraine to the UK would be
better than local shale gas. Of course this does
not consider the economics of the fields
European Gas Prices higher European gas
demand Scenario
All depend on your views about shale gas costs, European
demand and oil prices. At one extreme costs could be
significantly higher than LNG prices
Pricing to Oil index helps Shale
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Cheaper than
shale Russian
gas
European Gas Scenario Low demand Scenario
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Difficult to justify Shale in scenario
where demand falls i.e. a green
renewable scenario.
Both price scenarios suggests shale will
reach 20% of potential That would
mean the UK might reach 200 -400
mmscf. Circa 2-5% of demand
Lock out game to be played
Bcm/yr
Jobs
Lots of uncertainty in forecasts. Recent US forecasts seem high
New jobs or redeploy not all new jobs!!!
25-50,000 latent potential jobs in the UK Shale, many more in Europe
.
Scottish Companies well placed if move first
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UK UKR US
Europe
000s jobs
Direct and
Indirect
Productivity of
area
So what does this mean for Europe?
Too early to tell Need more well data
Depends on assumptions such as the actual well productivities, oil
indexation, Russian response, tax breaks etc amongst other things
Created three production scenarios based on a variety of
assumptions as listed above:
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Summary

In the short term shale gas is not going to be the saviour of UK or
European gas
Russia is not going to stand idle whilst shale is developed. Russia
has Shale too, but its gas is comparatively cheap
Skills an issue A learning curve to climb
Going to be complex but an opportunity. Need to start sooner rather
than later but with care
Too soon to make concrete predictions - Shale still not well
understood
Prices ie economics will be a big determinant of Shale gas
development. It is not cheap gas.
Water disposal and Environmental concerns need to be adequately
addressed


Summary 2
Governments should consider R & D funding not subsidizing small
plays
Theoretically Europe could produce some 30,000 mmscfd (~300
BCM) of shale gas by 2040/2050. But at what price? And will they be
allowed to. Prices indicate that only 20% of the potential might be
produced
By that time Hydrates may be a more interesting contender but its
fate will depend on technology innovations and breakthroughs
Focused on Onshore Offshore would be interesting
Shale's with higher flows will obviously be more competitive.
Security of supply not discussed but may be a driver for Shale
Development. What is the Value we should put on this
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Twitter: #Energyredefined

From Riches to Rags?

Chesapeake Energy
Corp. disclosed Monday
that it will not give CEO
Aubrey McClendon a
bonus for last year and it
is limiting his use of
company aircraft.
Chesapeake has also
been struggling financially,
due in part to a plunge in
natural-gas prices. It has
cut jobs, sold assets and
disclosed in a regulatory
filing Monday that it is
substantially reducing its
executives' annual
incentive compensation for
2012.

Chesapeake Energy is
the largest stakeholder in
the Utica shale, with the
company and its CEO
McClendon betting the
proverbial farm that Nat
gas is about to become
the nation's preferred
source of energy.
Chesapeake CEO Aubrey
McClendon is no stranger
to controversy
According to some
estimates the Utica Shale
may contain 38 trillion
cubic feet of undiscovered
gas.

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