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Page added on April 20, 2012
Russian Energy Oligarchy’s Fears of Shale Gas Rising
Now and again Russian President Putin has warned Russian gas-giant Gazprom that it must face the growing threat of abundant shale gas. Shale gas is a massive and newly accessible energy resource ranging from North America to China to South America to Europe. But it is the shale gas resources in Europe and China that Putin is most worried about, for those resources represent a huge and devastating threat to Russia’s ability to finance its government. Putin’s ambitious plans to make Russia into a world superpower, like the collapsed USSR, are at stake.
Could the boom in shale gas challenge the leadership of Russia in gas?
Until now, Moscow and Gazprom have seemingly been nonchalant about the threat. But as the impact of the boom in US natural gas production becomes clear, depressing prices to levels not seen in 10 years and increasing the prospect of the country becoming an exporter, the Kremlin is beginning to pay attention.The change in attitude is led by Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president-elect. He told the Duma last week that the boom in shale gas can “seriously” reshape the global energy market. “National energy companies, obviously, must respond to these challenges,” he said, in a clear reference to Gazprom….The biggest risk for Russia is not the US shale gas but the potential of the development of similar reserves in neighbouring Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Ukraine.
Eastern European countries are racing to tap shale deposits using the same technology – hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and horizontal drilling – used in the US gas industry.Gazprom supplies Europe with about 20 per cent of its gas needs, so the development of shale deposits in its backyard is a serious long-term threat.Until now, European companies have found it difficult to renegotiate their expensive contracts with Gazprom because the lack of alternative suppliers. Over the next decade, the development of the European shale industry could give the Continent’s natural gas consumers a bit more leverage. _FP_via_GWPF
China is another Gazprom customer which will soon be in a good position to re-negotiate its contracts, based upon the development of its own native shale gas resource. All of these re-negotiations will be extremely painful for a corrupt energy oligarchy such as Russia, which depends upon high energy exports to finance its very existence — an existence already threatened by an ongoing demographic collapse, a worsening public health disaster, an industrial infrastructure that cannot keep up with the west, and a military that is increasingly seen as a “paper tiger” by its ambitious neighbor to the southeast.Putin has green activists well in hand, in his battle to keep Russia’s energy customers helpless and dependent upon their Russian energy suppliers. But governments are being pushed to the wall by energy prices and ongoing budget deficits. Most of Russia’s customers are not overly fond of the aggressive bear, and do not care to pay for Russia to re-develop its nuclear and conventional threat.
…Gazprom’s European customers, tired of being ripped off by Gazprom, are avidly exploring the possibilities of undertaking fracking to develop their own sources of the “blue gold,” and nowhere is interest higher than in the Russian Federation’s neighbors Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and China….the rapid growth in U.S. shale gas production has already led Gazprom to postpone the launch of its massive Shtokman gas condensate field development in the Barents Sea, which contains an estimated 3.9 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of natural gas. In 2009 the U.S. overtook Russia as the world’s biggest producer of natural gas as expanded fracking activity to extract fuel trapped in shale rocks. Even worse, by 2016 the U.S. plans to become a net exporter of liquefied natural gas, with initial sales of 31.1 million cubic meters (mcm) a day doubling within three years.
Gazprom’s exports to Europe are already falling because of increased competition.
Moscow’s National Research University Higher School of Economics Center for evaluation of commodity assets director Valery Kryukov noted that while Gazprom previously supplied 37 percent of Europe’s natural gas needs, that had slipped to 25 percent and concluded, “Russia risks losing its main source of income – the export of natural gas.”Perhaps the weirdest aspect of Russia’s views on shale gas is that it has criticized recent interest in Rumania, Bulgaria and Poland in shale gas development as environmentally irresponsible, a somewhat surreal complaint given the USSR’s ecocide inflicted by more than seven decades of headlong industrialization. _GWPF
China’s situation is even more threatening to Russia than the prospect of losing its European customers. Because China is a clear and developing threat to Russia’s very possession of its vast East Siberian resources — from timber to minerals to oil & gas to uranium. If China becomes self-sufficient in gas production, not only will Russia lose a lucrative customer, it will also be faced with a more dangerous competitor — on many levels.
12 Comments on "Russian Energy Oligarchy’s Fears of Shale Gas Rising"
DC on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 2:15 am
Russia has nothing to worry about, let the amerikans(and stupid Canadians) turn NA into one giant open pit mine and frak-a-paloza to produce a temporary ‘glut’. Besides..that Al fin guy is a bit a tool. LNG is not a popular way to move NG. Too expensive, too much specialized equipment req’d
Old news.
BillT on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 2:31 am
This is all to make the sheeple believe that the energy crunch is over. In a few years, when the bubble bursts, it will only be worse. But, until then, pandemonium will reign in the naturals gas world. Think twice before dumping that oil furnace for a new one unless it is in need of replacement. Spend the money on insulating a few rooms of your home so you can live in them with minimal heat during the winter.
Arthur on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 10:53 am
Motorbike drivers in the winter sometimes wear clothings with special heating wires and keep warm at minus 20 centigrade and 80 miles/hour. No need to heat walls, furniture, books, etc. Electrical blankets operate at 60 Watt. ‘Electrical clothes’ can operate more efficiently. Possibly you can keep warm at 40 Watts (less than 1 kwh a day) in a room temperature of 10 degrees Celcius, wearing warm cloths, without the necessity to use fossil fuel. Anode and cathode in seat and back of your chair.
BillT on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 1:42 pm
Arthur, I am sure we will adapt as you say, to more efficient use of energy because it is that or freeze. No more walking around the house in shorts and bare feet when it is 20 degrees outside. If your grand parents are alive, ask them how they dealt with winter. They will talk about unheated bedrooms and thick comforters, warmed bricks wrapped in cloth at their feet, and flannel or wool PJs among others.
Arthur on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 7:47 pm
The only material that really needs to be warmed in order to keep humans comfortable are the few milimeters of air between the skin and the cloths. In northern Europe 5 MW turbines are now becoming increasingly installed. One such machine (operating in full capacity) can keep a mid sized city of 100,000 warm in the manner described (50 Watt per person). One such machine costs 5 million euro or 50 euro per person. It costs more to buy the special cloths with thermal wire (12 volt, not 220.lol):
http://www.warmtekleding.nl/index.php?item=broeken&action=page&group_id=10&lang=NL
These clothes shown are intended for fishing, meaning outside. No one uses this stuff indoors. Yet. If somebody wants an excellent business opportunity, be my guest. Start sellings this stuff in eastern Europe where every year hundreds of people freeze to death. I am too lazy to become millionair.
A single payment of 50 euro is enough to keep yourself warm for 30 years. Isn’t peakoil beautiful! Now an average single person houshould easily has to pay 150 euro’s PER MONTH to the utilities, with heating being the largest cost item.
SOS on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 10:43 pm
The sheepie people, the flat earthers. the ones on the left, the ones being led by a president that doesnt know or want you to know the truth.
Oil and gas are abudant. Peak oil is political and its only cause is not enough wells.
Arthur on Fri, 20th Apr 2012 11:05 pm
SOS, I am happy to agree with you that peakoil is a reality because there are not enough wells.lol
Arthur on Sat, 21st Apr 2012 11:09 am
Here I found a short video about electrical clothing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUxyGR6TFv8
The longer I think about it, the more I see that this rather simple technology has the potential to make domestic heating with fossil fuel superfluous. The gear shown in the video consumes 90 Watt, but that is for outside usage while driving with high speeds on a motorbike. In Holland on an average winterday outside temperatures are a few degrees Celcius above zero. Dutch homes typically have large windows, usual double glass, resulting in a room temperature of some 10-12 degrees Celcius without additional heating, purely from daylight radiation and body heat (100 watt/person) from the inhabitants. That means that one only needs a fraction of these 90 motorbike Watts to keep warm. Like 30 Watt? I think it is a golden business idea to produce a combination of bureau chairs, with seat and back functioning as electrodes (no need to plug yourself) and casual thermo-wired clothing, to be used by office workers. This way the employer can save on the energy bill and the employees stay warm. It could also be useful for people at home with a small purse. 30 Watt times 16 day-hours = 0.5 kwh. That’s a few dollar/euro-cent per day. Meaning you can in theory reduce your energy bill for heating to 3$ per month.
Who wants to become a millionair?
BillT on Sat, 21st Apr 2012 11:37 am
SOS is going to have a stroke when Obama is re-elected…lol.
Arthur on Sat, 21st Apr 2012 12:08 pm
I should have posted this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fVLDTmrQCU&feature=relmfu
On 2:38 they show the so-called micro-wire, which is the essential element for an electrical body warmer. A would-be entrepreneur should buy this wire and invent a way of sewing this into normal jeans and shirts or pullover’s. I just realised it is not necessary to produce chairs, just produce some cover you can connect to the seating and back of any bureauchair and figure out how to realise electrical connectivity between these two covers and the back of the pullover and the bum of the pants, if you excuse my french.
Ed Burghard on Sat, 21st Apr 2012 3:27 pm
You can learn more about the shale energy industry by visiting http://enterpriseappalachia.com/market-access/marcellus-shale/ or by visiting http://strengtheningbrandamerica.com/place-brandaid/leveraging-the-shale-energy-opportunity/resources-to-better-understand-the-shale-energy-industry/
BillT on Sun, 22nd Apr 2012 2:33 am
I predict the growth of comforters, ‘long john’ underwear, wool clothing, and the regression of dress styles to those of the late 1800s where everything was covered. I see families living in a few slightly heated rooms or maybe just the kitchen in winter. I see electric costing in excess of $1 per KWH in the next few years. Oil furnaces being obsolete. Natural gas being 10 times today’s price, and incomes being half or less in the purchasing power of today.