Gas hydrates and Shale Oil in India

the capitalist

iirc ... RIL has a JV with a US based Pioneer and have also invested in US for Shale Gas extraction ...

It's for Shale oil. This was the reason why reliance was forced to back out from exporting refined oil to Iran.

Business Line : Companies News : Reliance gets shale gas boost; pumps in $400 m in Q1

Envoy makes ‘detailed and expansive presentations' on oil and gas markets

India and the U.S., on Tuesday, held talks on weaning New Delhi away from dependence on Iranian oil and while both sides stated their known positions on the issue, one positive outcome of the talks, which were wide ranging in nature and not focussed just on Iran, was the possibility of India importing shale gas in liquefied form from the U.S.

Indian officials, during their meeting with U.S. Special Envoy on Energy Carlos Pascual, explained the long-term projections of India's energy needs, including key suppliers of oil and natural gas and possible external energy sources in Africa, North America and Southeast Asia.

India is, at present, importing crude oil from 30 countries spread across different continents, the U.S. team was told. From the trend of discussions, officials said the possibility of the U.S. exporting shale gas to India should be seen positively.

Desperate to corner Iran in concert with other countries, the U.S. has been seeking sharp reduction in Indian oil purchases from Iran.

The issue was highlighted by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton right from the moment she landed in Kolkata last week on her way to Delhi where she dwelt on it during her interactions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna.

India has cut back on oil purchases from Iran but does not admit it was under U.S. pressure. Instead, it argues that displacement of Iran from its position as India's number two supplier of oil was due to a commercial decision by its refineries.

In response to U.S. cajoling, India feels some customers who had moved to alternate sources of oil have not found the experience very encouraging. But because of U.S. insistence during Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai's visit to Washington in February this year, it was agreed to have the envoy come over to discuss this issue as well as some others that are of acute long-term interest for India.

In his interaction with the multi-Ministry delegation drawn from the Ministry of External Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas and Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Mr. Pascaul made “detailed and expansive presentations” on the two main agenda items — oil and gas markets, including impact of LNG and of shale gas on the integration of gas markets. His team also made presentations on the demand, supply and consumption pattern projections, including discoveries off the coast of East Africa.

Mr. Pascaul will visit Mumbai on Wednesday for talks with ONGC and financial institutions on the Iran issue as well as shale gas projections.

Besides shale gas, which some experts say could send the price of natural gas plummeting, India was also keen on the discoveries made or being made on the east coast of Africa — offshore gas deposits in Mozambique, indication of huge deposits offshore in Tanzania and on land in Kenya.

This could indicate a vast area in the Indian Ocean could contain hydrocarbons and India would like this knowledge to cover the northern portion of the Indian Ocean as well.

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Eco...cle3422814.ece

We too have shale gas!
How about we start digging our own?

Its already happening, however i doubt its successful.

We do not have national policy on its extraction yet. Maybe by 2017 we will be up and running with commercial production. Till then we can import from US, African coasts.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/e...-reserves.html

Then what about this:

Business Line : Companies News : Reliance Ind bets big on shale gas biz

This is good. Will help balance out the trade deficit that the US has with India. My personal opinion is that we should not depend on domestic shale. If anyone knows how shale gas is drilled and extracted, they will know why. US has 5 times the land area and 1/4th the population of India. They can afford to destroy vast swathes of land drilling for shale. India cannot afford this.

This is a satellite image of a shale gas field. Every one of the white patches was where the gas was drilled out of. By the time the gas company is done, the entire landscape is destroyed, forestry is gone, the soil is poisoned and the land is useless for a few hundred years until nature slowly heals it.

India cannot afford this. We just dont have enough resources for this.



@hussain, there are some estimates that put India's total recoverable shale at twice the amount in US and Canada. Its very tempting but the cost of recovery to the environment is really high

shale gas will most likely be much more expensive.

Then it probably means that RIL is conducting this activity in the absence of any government framework and by the time we announce any universal policy, other market players will allege that RIL was benefited in the past & thus holds challenging advantage over others. Not sure if this is a major irregularity though

About Shale Gas.



At the core of the shale story is the stunning progress in the technology used to extract the gas from 'tight' rocks, through a process of hydraulic fracturing. This involves bombarding the rocks with millions of litres of chemically treated water to force the gas to flow. Shale gas is no different from the regular natural gas (primarily methane), and its presence over a wide area of thousands of acres has been known for years. But it was not pursued vigorously due to the difficulties of extracting it.
The breakthrough came when a bunch of medium-sized oil companies figured out smarter ways of drilling in the last three years. As technology improved, the recoverable reserves were quickly upgraded. In the Marcellus basin in Pennsylvania for instance, reserves grew from 15 tcf (trillion cubic feet) five years ago to 270 tcf now. Little-known, medium-sized companies like XTO, Devon Energy and Pioneer Natural control the technology and process of extraction.

^^^ i am guessing then that most countries will have significant Shale Gas.

Shale gas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia