Schlumberger Chairman: Plenty Of Scope For Shale Gas Cost Savings
08 Dezembro 2011 - 5:25AM
Dow Jones News
There is considerable scope for improving the efficiency of the
production of shale gas, which has revolutionised the supply of
natural gas in the U.S., said Andrew Gould, chairman of oil
services giant Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB).
"Methods of extraction are going to evolve and be done with less
waste," Gould said at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar.
"This is going to be absolutely essential because of land use
problems, environmental problems and the use of water."
Shale gas is extracted by drilling horizontal wells, blasting
perforations into the rock and then pumping in liquids at high
pressure to fracture the stone and release the gas trapped within.
A boom in this technique has turned the U.S. from a major gas
importer to a country that is now planning exports, although there
is growing opposition to the shale industry because of water
pollution fears.
Similar shale gas production efforts are underway in Europe and
China.
The production process can be made cheaper and more efficient by
better targeting the fracturing technique and tailoring it to the
characteristics of each rock formation, Gould said. Currently,
"very few of the perforations produce any gas at all, the rest is
just waste," he said.
-By James Herron, james.herron@dowjones.com, +44 207 842
9317
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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