[MonteQuest]

In the November issue of National Geographic, there is a fold-out map of the earth at night taken from space.
http://peakoil.com/fortopic2981.html
This photo shows the population centers and the bright glow of electric lights. But the map in the magazine also shows the forest fires, night fishing, and one other very telling detail--the flaring off of natural gas around the world. The highest concentrations are in Nigeria, Iran and Russia. Nigeria alone accounts for 20 % of the world's flares. Northern Russia is ablaze as well as the North Sea. This map is a must see! More than 100 billion cubic meters are burned off annually, enough to power France and Germany for a year. Oil companies searching for oil regularly burn off the gas and consider it worthless unless it can be transported. It appears that 80 percent of the world's reserves lack pipelines to transport it to consumers. Sounds like a lot of pipeline building to me. Is this "big oil's " back up plan?

Natural Gas Burned As Worthless Gets New Life

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ast month Exxon Mobil inked an agreement with Qatar Petroleum, the state-run oil company of the OPEC-member country. The deal calls for Exxon Mobil to construct a plant that will produce 6.5 million gallons of fuel a day when it comes on line in 2011. Cost: $7 billion.
Harry Longwell, Exxon Mobil's executive vice president and director, says the company's official stance is that crude oil will continue to reign well into the middle of this century and probably beyond, but conversion of natural gas into liquids can give them flexibility.
The company's commitment in Qatar shows gas-to-liquids is no mere pipe dream. Exxon Mobil has spent 20 years and $600 million on front-end investments in this technology. It holds a staggering 3,500 U.S. and international patents related to this work.
"It's important to look at the total energy growth requirement," Longwell says. "We look to 2020 and think we'll need 20 percent more energy than we do now. We're interested in products that have interchangability."
Royal Dutch-Shell, ConocoPhillips, ChevronTexaco, Marathon and South Africa's Sasol are all in various stages of development for gas-to-liquids plants in the Middle East.
The focus for projects to prove this technology is Qatar. It's a natural starting point because the producer of oil sits atop the world's largest natural gas field, and many of the biggest oil companies have operations in the Persian Gulf state.

[Cool Hand Linc]

After oil has declined. If the gas to liquid projects work. With gas to liquid still being a finite fuel source.

Do you think man kind will learn from the oil age and look past the gas to liquid age with a plan?

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MissingLink', 'A')fter oil has declined. If the gas to liquid projects work. With gas to liquid still being a finite fuel source.

Do you think man kind will learn from the oil age and look past the gas to liquid age with a plan?

[seb]

I guess everybody noticed that North Korea is definitely dark on the map of Earth by night. The future is there. To save energy we need a communist dictatorship!

[MonteQuest]

We all know that natural gas is next in line for the dominant energy source post-peak oil. Here is a great article with some worthy insights into the field.


A Conundrum - The Natural Gas Market
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he natural gas market can easily be considered an enigma wrapped in a riddle. US storage is at record levels yet prices are historically high. Drilling is at record levels yet supplies are falling. There exists an almost unexplainably large gap between natural gas spot prices and futures prices. While the recent surge in crude prices can be credited for some of the recent gains in natural gas prices, I believe there are several unrecognized trends that are shaping the North American natural gas market. Probably the most important reason to expect to see North American natural gas prices continue to escalate is that production continues to decline. US natural gas production continues to fall despite record drilling activity.

[0mar]

HA EAT THAT ECONOMISTS. Apparently there's a finite amount of natural gas and it is not a function of money! WHODATHUNK!

Look how clueless they are. They simply don't understand the earth is finite. All the drills in the world won't save you if there is no natural gas in the ground.

[Kingcoal]

I knew that was the practice before WW2, but I didn't think it was still in force today! God, with what we are paying for NG, incredible.

[Coolman]

That still does not change the fact that Natural Gas is going into decline in the USA. Oil is about to Peak, period, we run our economy on oil and not natural gas.

[Coolman]

I also think Colin Campbell accounted for Natural Gas Liquids in his peak production curve.

[The_Virginian]

monte quest,

there are burning oil soaked mountains in Azerbajan, Iran etc. but they are not commercial finds.

Isolated pockets of Natural gas do exist...and probly a lot more than most think...

The question is does it pay for the eqpt./pipelines to come in and tap it?

Let's say the fields in Nigeria and russia do pay off...

Who will get it, China?

These reserves are known to National Geographic....I would fathom that Cambell / Jean count them as well. In fact we do have 20 years more...but is that true if we replace the Oil w/ Gas?

besides trucks and cars on natrual gas would need some safety overhauls before I would support them. Small household methane tanks are a favorite for terrorists to use as an explosive...so think about what dammage an Accident on a hyway would cause....

[lowem]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'W')e all know that natural gas is next in line for the dominant energy source post-peak oil. Here is a great article with some worthy insights into the field ....

http://www.financialsense.com/editorial ... /1222.html

[frankthetank]

If I was a tree I would be scared. Very scared. Natural gas is used throughout the country for heat/cooking. No gas/No heat? Only simple solution would be oil furnace/electricity<--if the grid can handle it/wood.

[Coolman]

What we need to do is stop this consumer society in its tracks, right now, no more extending it into the future. It is a virus and must be distroyed. The farther we extend it the worse it gets, and we must stop right NOW!!!

[dduck]

The sad part of this enormous wastage is that the depletion curve of natural gas fields is typically a plateau followed by a fairly steep crash, rather than the smooth tail-off of an oil field, AND the oil industry seems to be rushing to natural gas as the primary remedy for the coming energy crunch. Plans abound for liquifaction and regasification plants and about 150 LNG tankers already ply the seas, with another 50 or more under construction. It seems that we are setting ourselves up for an energy squeeze on a time scale much more compressed than that of oil.

dduck

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', 'm')onte quest,

The question is does it pay for the eqpt./pipelines to come in and tap it?

Let's say the fields in Nigeria and russia do pay off...

Who will get it, China?

These reserves are known to National Geographic....I would fathom that Cambell / Jean count them as well. In fact we do have 20 years more...but is that true if we replace the Oil w/ Gas?

[frankthetank]

I don't know about others here, but i think using nat gas for electricity production is not wise. To me its greatest use is for heating/cooking. How much sense does it make to pipe it to a electricity producer, send it to a consumer, consumer uses it to heat up leftovers?

About the nat gas leakage. I live near(not close!) to a large nat gas pipe(pipes) and every time i walk past them(depending on the wind) you smell it(i know it doesnt have a smell/its the sulfer) and its obvious there is leakage, how much???

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'I') don't know about others here, but i think using nat gas for electricity production is not wise. To me its greatest use is for heating/cooking. How much sense does it make to pipe it to a electricity producer, send it to a consumer, consumer uses it to heat up leftovers?

About the nat gas leakage. I live near(not close!) to a large nat gas pipe(pipes) and every time i walk past them(depending on the wind) you smell it(i know it doesnt have a smell/its the sulfer) and its obvious there is leakage, how much???

[MarkR]

Natural gas is very important fuel, and burning it for electricity, for which there alternative sources, is foolish. It is, for a start, the major source of energy for agriculture - in the form of fertilizer.

However, it wouldn't be done unless there were big advantages.

Natural gas has seen a big increase in its use for 'baseload' generation - the fraction that is always running at maximum capacity, because it provides high efficiency generation of electricity.

I don't know of any natural gas fired steam generation plants - such a system would have an efficiency of about 30-35% and be slow to respond to changes in demand.

The big advantage for gas is gas turbine generation which can offer either better flexibility (with small plants and cost of lower efficiency), or better efficiency (up to 40%) with large plants.

Most new baseload plants are now combined cycle (waste heat from the gas turbine boils water for a steam turbine), and there are plants operating with efficiencies of 58% overall.

Don't forget as well that burning gas at home is not perfectly efficient. If you have an older gas boiler, or water heater, it may well only achieve 70-75% efficiency. If it is of the design which keeps a pilot light lit, or keeps water constantly warm, then overall efficiency could be even lower.

If your boiler is over 15 years old, consider replacing it with a state-of-the-art condensing boiler, efficiencies of 92-95% are possible.

The best options for residential heating would probably be solar thermal (using either flat plat collectors - in warm climates, or vacuum tube collectors in cold climates), or in moderate climates an electrically powered heat pump.

Perhaps in the future, micro CHP will be practical - Small 1-2 kW generator/water heaters could provide residential heat and electricity at high efficiency (>90%). If utilities required a certain percentage of your electricity to be delivered at peak time, then this could be a realistic option for replacing the inefficient small 'peaking' power stations.

[MonteQuest]

"Stranded" Natural Gas to Liquid Fuel, is it time?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')very day natural gas flares blaze across swaths of Africa, Russia, Asia and the Middle East, burning off 10 billion cubic feet of energy--the equivalent of 1.7 million barrels of oil. There's more gas where that came from. Reserves of "stranded" natural gas--the stuff that's abandoned because there's no economical way to transport it--come to maybe 2,500 trillion cubic feet. If captured and converted, the gas would make (after conversion losses) 250 billion barrels of synthetics, from clean-burning diesel to jet fuel. That's like finding another Saudi Arabia."

[Epyx]

So what you're saying is that Natural Gas is the answer?