Energy Security in an Emission-Constrained World: The Potential for Alternative Fuels

Distribution and potential of global oil and gas resources

The Far East must fuel its growing economies while oil production has remained flat since 2000. With more than half of the region's conventional oil already depleted, industry hopes to increase liquid supplies through the development of unconventional resources. Difficult to manage unconventional reservoirs, though, challenge the ability to transform even huge in-place resources like extra-heavy oil and oil shales to supplies. The Far East is endowed with estimated 268 Bb of in-place heavy oil and bitumen resources. Drilling has found 229 fields with estimated 6.2 Bbo of 2P recoverable heavy oil. China dominates with 4,082 MMb and heavy oil reserves have been discovered in India, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia. Unconventional igneous, basement and volcanic reservoir rocks yield important oil and gas production in the Far East. Igneous and basement rocks account for 3,658 MMbo and 1,359 Boe of gas resources. Vietnam accounts for the most 2P resources in this category. Led by China and Indonesia, volcanic reservoirs contribute 471 MMbo plus 1,394 MMboe of gas to the region. Oil shale is the region's sleeping giant. China commenced oil shale processing in 1928 and has ramped up three projects, Fushun, Maoming and Huadian, where it produced about 2.1 MMb during 2007 and targets 35 MMb recovery by 2020. Petrochina has boosted China's recoverable shale oil resources to 241 Bb. Technology is the key to unlock these resources. It may be only a matter of time before China tests the in situ processes being evaluated by Shell, Chevron and EGL in the Colorado Plateau or recently licensed by Raytheon to Schlumberger. The paper reviews the evolving plays and technologies that impact the development of the Far East's unconventional oil resources. Introduction Unconventional oil resources are increasingly important in the quest for energy security. Global liquids discoveries have failed to replace oil production for more than twenty years. There is concern that conventional oil resources will not be able to meet growing supply requirements to fuel worldwide economic growth. This concern has triggered a scramble to secure long-term oil supplies. The identified, 7,590 billion barrels (Bb) of in-place bitumen, "heavy" oil and oil shale resources are about the same as estimated global in-place conventional liquids resource. In a high oil price environment, unconventional resources are viewed as important and economically attractive components of future oil supplies. But there is a "catch" to the role of unconventional oil in the global oil supply perspective. While in-place unconventional oil resources are about the same as the conventional resources the unconventional resources currently account for only about 2.5% of global oil production. Nevertheless, large International Oil Companies (IOCs) and National Oil Companies (NOCs) have increased their unconventional oil holdings as a means to secure large, long-life oil supplies. They also have increased their R&D budgets to develop new technologies to boost recoveries from unconventional resources.

As conventional gas resources are depleted, unconventional gas (UG) resources (gas from tight sands, coal beds, and shale) are becoming increasingly important to U.S. and world energy supply. The volume of UG resources is generally unknown in most basins outside North America. However, in 25 mature North American basins, UG resources have been produced for decades, and resources and reserves are well characterized. The objective of this work was to evaluate recoverable UG resources and determine the quantitative relations between known conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources in mature North American basins, with the goal of using these relations to estimate unconventional hydrocarbon resources in basin outside North America, which we call frontier basins.We used data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Potential Gas Committee, Energy Information Administration, National Petroleum Council, and Gas Technology Institute to evaluate relations among hydrocarbon resource types in the Appalachian, Black Warrior, Greater Green River, Illinois, San Juan, Uinta-Piceance, and Wind River basins. We chose these seven basins for preliminary analysis of relations between conventional and unconventional gas resources because they are mature basins for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas production. To conduct this analysis, we wrote a computer program that we call PRISE (Petroleum Resources Investigation Summary and Evaluation). Input data for PRISE, obtained from the published data sources, were the values of technically recoverable resources, which were the sum of the following resource categories: cumulative production, proved reserves, growth, and undiscovered recoverable resources. We then compared technically recoverable conventional and unconventional resources for each basin to evaluate relationship between conventional and unconventional resource volumes in these seven basins.For the seven basins studied, we found that 10% of the total recoverable hydrocarbon resources are conventional oil and gas, whereas 90% of the recoverable hydrocarbons are unconventional resources. We propose that the results of this study may be used to estimate recoverable resources from unconventional gas reservoirs in target (frontier) basins, where conventional oil and gas resources are known but unconventional resources have not been evaluated.

China's conventional and unconventional natural gas resources: Potential and exploration targets

Historically, renewable energy technologies have been seen as a source of competition by the oil and gas industry. However, the oil and gas industry is now one of the primary sources of investments in renewable energy technologies. The oil and gas industry in California, in particular, has been making significant investments in renewables and leveraging the latest renewable energy technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of oilfield applications. This study analyzes the latest advances in renewable energy solutions, their impact on energy transition efforts in the state, and the potential of further developing conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources in California. This paper has focused on conducting a thorough review of literature related to the latest advances in renewable energy technologies and energy transition efforts in California and the applications of these technologies in reducing the carbon footprint of oilfield activities, along with examples of renewables as a complementary resource to oil and gas. Furthermore, the availability of conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources in the state has been summarized. The potential of developing these resources in the future is analyzed in detail. The literature includes a comprehensive set of references ranging from peer-reviewed journal publications and proceedings to data from market studies and other non-technical publications and market predictions by renowned experts. The position of renewable energy resources either as a competing or complementary source to oil and natural gas in California and the impact of these resources in energy transition efforts in the state are discussed. Examples of the use of renewable energy technologies to improve various processes within oil and gas production operations are provided, and the prospect of further developing conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources in the state has been investigated to conclude the impact of both these energy sources to the regional energy supply and demand dynamics. In addition, the benefits, drawbacks and challenges in scaling up the use of these energy sources are discussed in detail. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of renewable energy resources, energy transition efforts, and the future of conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources in California. It serves as a single source of reference to the oil and gas industry in laying out relevant data and information related to renewable energy resources from the point of view of oil and gas market dynamics and closes the gap in highlighting the latest advances and the future of the energy industry in California.

Effectively addressing today’s energy challenges requires advanced technologies along with policies that influence economic markets while advancing the public good.

The role of unconventional resources (e.g., oil sands and extra-heavy oil) is anticipated to increase in the global oil market. Although we are facing a scarcity of conventional (low cost) oil resources, unconventional oil resources might manage (for a period of time) to supply constraints in terms of meeting expected increases in oil demand. Here, we use the ACEGES (Agent-based Computational Economics of the Global Energy System) model to investigate the potential impact of unconventional oil resources on the future evolution of the oil market on a global scale. The key assumption of the model is that technological improvements will allow unconventional oil production to increase at a rate similar to the rate of production of the conventional oil resources. An important observation from the ACEGES-based simulations is the significant shift of the peak production of oil (both conventional and unconventional) if and only if technological progress will allow upstream extraction rates for unconventional resources, similar to the historic extraction rates of conventional oil. Given the estimated potential of total oil resources, the ACEGES-based scenario suggests that the unconventional oil production may shift the peak year of total oil by 60 years or more, assuming favourable upstream investment plans and a continuous increase in the demand for crude oil products at a reasonable price. However, increased total oil production might not meet the unconstrained (high) growth rates of oil demand.

euenergy policy objectives are directed at three highly interdependent areas: energy supply security, competitiveness and decarbonization to prevent climate change. In this paper, we focus on the issue of energy supply security. Security of energy supply for the immediate and medium-term future is a necessary condition in the current context of the global political economy for the survival of the Union and its component member states. Since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, energy policy no longer comes onto the agenda of the European Commission through the backdoor of the common market, environment and competitiveness. The Treaty created a new legal basis for the internal energy market. However, securing external supplies as well as deciding the energy mix, remain matters of national prerogative, though within the constraints of other parts of eu’s legislation in force. Without a common defense policy, the highly import dependent Union and its members face external instability in the energy rich Arab Middle East and North Africa.Concern about energy security has been triggered by declining European energy production as well as the strain on global demand exerted by newly industrializing economies such as China and India and the Middle East, as well as the political instability in this reserve-rich part of the world. This paper explores the following two topics [1] the current situation and past trends in production, supply, demand and trade in energy in the eu, against the background of major changes in the last half decade and [2] threats to the security of the supply of oil and natural gas from import regions.Fossil fuel import dependence in the eu is expected to continue to increase in the coming two decades. As global trends show, and despite new fields in the Caspian region and the Eastern Mediterranean, conventional fossil oil and gas resources remain concentrated in fewer geopolitically unstable regions and countries (i.e. the Middle East and North Africa (mena) and the Caspian Region (cr) including Russia), while global demand for fossil energy is expected to substantially increase also within the energy rich Gulf countries. This combination directly impacts eu energy supply security. It should be noted that the trend towards higher levels of import dependence was not interrupted when the era of low energy prices, between 1980 and 2003, came to an end.Within the eu itself, domestic resistance to the development of unconventional resources is an obstacle to investment in unconventional sources in this part of the high-income world. This should therefore not put at risk investments in either renewables or alternative sources at home or conventional resources mainly in the Arab-Middle East.The situation is exacerbated by the spread of instability in the Arab-Middle Eastern countries. There are three domestic and geopolitical concerns to be taken into consideration:(1) In the Arab-Middle East, threats to eu energy supply security originate in the domestic regime of these countries. Almost all Arab resource-rich countries belong to a type ofpatrimonial, rentier-type of state-society relation. These regimes rely on rents from the exploitation of energy resources and the way in which rents are distributed.Regimes of this type are being challenged. Their economies show uneven economic development, centralized power structures, corruption and poverty at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The discrimination of females is a major obstacle to the development of the service sector. At present, even the monarchies fear the spread of violent conflict.Offshoots of these consequences have proven to cause civil unrest, exemplified by what optimists have called the ‘Arab Spring.’(2) The second concern is the domestic and global impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds (swfs) managed by Arab patrimonial rentier states. swfs have proven to be an asset in both developing and developed economies due to their ability to buffer the ‘Dutch Disease,’ and to encourage industrialization, economic diversification and eventually the development of civil society. In patrimonial states, however, swfs are affected by corruption and the diversion of funds away from long-term socioeconomic development to luxury consumption by political elites. In fact, Arab swfs underpin the persistence of the Arab patrimonial rentier state system.(3) Finally, the post-Cold War, me and cea geopolitical landscape is shifting. The emergence of China and other Asian economies has increased their presence in the Middle East due to a growing need for energy and the expansion of Asian markets. The recent discovery of energy resources in the us has led to speculation that there will be less us presence in the region. There would be a serious risk to eu energy security if emerging Asian economies were to increase their presence in the Middle East as us interests recede.

This paper provides estimates of "in place" and recoverable conventional light and heavy crude oil resources for the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Components of the oil resource base considered are currently established reserves, resources available through infill drilling and the application of enhanced recovery techniques in currently established pools, extensions to these pools and new pools, which available geological and statistical information indicates could reasonably be expected to be discovered in the future. The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) last made an estimate of Western Canadian conventional light crude oil resources in 1988(1). Estimates of conventional heavy crude oil resources have been previously reported in the reports "Canadian Energy Supply and Demand" prepared by staff of the National Energy Board (NEB)(2, 3). Recently, techno logical progress, and in particular 'the application of horizontal drilling, has, led, to the potential for significant improvements in recovery efficiencies for conventional oil. This paper reviews and updates the previous resource assessments by NEB staff in light of the recent technological advances. Introduction The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) occupies an area of 1.4 million square kilometres of southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories (Figure 1). Petroleum resources of the basin range from natural gas at the light end of the spectrum through conventional crude oil to bitumen, 'which is also referred to as unconventional oil. Conventional crude oil is that portion of this spectrum which exists in the reservoir in the liquid state and is sufficiently fluid that it flows naturally from the reservoir into a well bore. We adopt the light and heavy conventional crude oil categories of the provincial agencies but classify as light crude oil that designated as medium by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB), and classify as heavy crude oil that designated as medium by the Saskatchewan Department of Energy and Mines. Costs of extraction and crude oil prices are important determinants in the assessment of recoverable crude oil resources(4). However, 'we avoid focussing on the economic aspects of crude oil recovery by assuming a high crude oil price, in the order of $35(Cdn.) per barrel, so that estimates of recoverable resources are not constrained by price considerations. The assessment uses historical data based on definitions for reserves and resources that have been traditionally used by the NEB and the provincial agencies. These definitions differ from those given in the monograph recently published by The etroleum Society(5). FIGURE 1 Available In Full Paper. Categories of Resources We define the conventional crude oil resource base of the WCSB as the volume of conventional crude oil originally in place in the basin before any production. This crude oil resource base can be divided into discovered and undiscovered resources(Figure 2). Discovered resources are that part of the resource base that has been proven by drilling, testing or production.

ABSTRACTHeavy oil is less expensive than light crude oil, but heavy oil is more expensive to obtain light oil products. Conventional light crude oil resources are decreasing, therefore heavy oil resources will be needed more in the future. There are huge differences from field to field for heavy oil deposits. In terms of final productive use, heavy oil is considered as an unconventional resource. Heavy oil upgrading depends on four important factors: catalyst selection, heavy oil classification, process design, and production economics. Heavy and extra-heavy oils are unconventional reservoirs of oil. Globally, 21.3% of total oil reserves are heavy oil. Heavy oil is composed of long chain organic molecules called heavy hydrocarbons. The thermal degradation of the heavy hydrocarbons in heavy oil generates liquid and gaseous products. All kinds of heavy oils contain asphaltenes, and therefore are considered to be very dense material. The most similar technologies for upgrading of heavy oils are pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis, thermal and catalytic cracking, and hydrocracking. The amount of liquid products obtained from pyrolysis of heavy oil was dependent on the temperature and the catalyst. Pyrolytic oil contains highly valuable light hydrocarbons as gasoline and diesel components range. The constant increase in the use of crude oils has raised prices of the most common commercial conventional products and consequently seeking for new alternative petroleum resources, like some unconventional oil resources, becomes an interesting issue. The mass contents of gasoline, diesel, and heavy oil in the crude oil are 44.6%, 38.3%, and 17.1%, respectively. The gasoline yield from the heavy oil catalytic (Na2CO3) pyrolysis is higher than the diesel efficiency for all conditions. The yield of gasoline products increases with increasing pyrolysis temperature (from 230°C to 350°C) and percentage of catalyst (from 5% to 10%). The yields of gasoline-like product are from 21.5% to 39.1% in 5% catalytic run and from 32.5% to 42.5% in 10% catalytic run. The yields of diesel-like product are from 9.3% to 29.8% in 5% catalytic run and from 15.5% to 33.7% in 10% catalytic run.

Conventional and tight unconventional oil and gas resources in the Huizhou Depression have shown broad exploration prospects, which mainly originate from Wenchang Formation source rocks. Thus far, studies on Wenchang Formation source rocks mainly focused on the geochemical characteristics and conventional petroleum resource evaluation; however, the correlation of conventional, tight, and shale oil and gas, and their resources are still unknown. In fact, the formation of conventional, tight, and shale oil and gas are intrinsically related, which allows for a more objective evaluation to consider the three types of oil and gas resources simultaneously in the whole dynamic process of both hydrocarbon generation and expulsion, as well as reservoir tightness history. In this work, based on geological and geochemical analyses, the improved hydrocarbon generation potential method was utilized to establish a hydrocarbon generation and expulsion model of the Wenchang Formation source rocks. Then, combined with the reservoir tightness history, the conventional, tight, and shale oil and gas resources were evaluated. The results show that the Wenchang Formation source rocks are distributed in the whole depressions, with a thickness of 50-1850 m and an average total organic carbon content of 2.2%. The organic matter is mainly type II and is mature-high maturity. The Wenchang Formation source rocks reached hydrocarbon generation threshold and expulsion threshold at a vitrinite reflectivity of 0.43% and 0.65%, respectively, and the reservoir evolved completely tight at 2.3 Ma. Overall, the Lower and Upper Wenchang Formation contain a large amount of conventional, tight, and shale oil and gas resources. Cited as: Hu, T., Wu, G., Xu, Z., Pang, X., Liu, Y., Yu, S. Potential resources of conventional, tight, and shale oil and gas from Paleogene Wenchang Formation source rocks in the Huizhou Depression. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2022, 6(5): 402-414. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2022.05.05

It is a well established fact that discoveries of natural gas in Western Canada has declined over the last 30 or so years. However, statistical analyses of the declining trends have, to date, failed to provide a generally acceptable estimate of the conventional natural gas resources of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. This paper provides an explanation of why decline analysis appears to provide a valid method for estimating the conventional crude oil resources of the basin while the same is not true for natural gas. The paper proposes solutions to the problems encountered in the natural gas data and provides an estimate of the conventional natural gas resources of the basin by statistical analysis of the declining discovery rate trends. Introduction The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) occupies an area of 1.4 million square kilometres of southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories (Figure 1). Petroleum resources of the basin range from natural gas at the light end of the spectrum through conventional crude oil to bitumen. Conventional natural gas is that portion of this spectrum which exists in solution in crude oil, or in the gaseous state in reservoirs having a permeability greater than 0.1 mD. Unconventional natural gas resources are those contained in low permeability reservoirs (tight gas), those associated with coal deposits (coalbed methane) and those contained in shale deposits (shale gas). Costs of extraction and transportation and natural gas prices are important determinants in the assessment of recoverable natural gas resources. However, consideration of the economic aspects of natural gas recovery is avoided by assuming a high natural gas price, in the order of $3.00 per Mcf, so that estimates of recoverable resources are not constrained by price considerations. The Canadian Gas Potential Committee (CGPC), in its recent inaugural report(1), focused on conventional natural gas in the WCSB. However, an analysis such as that reported in this paper was not included. FIGURE 1: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. (Available in full paper) Categories of Resources Definitions for categories of resources are taken from the Petroleum Society Monograph Number 1,Determination of Oil and Gas Reserves(2). The definitions of primary interest in this paper are as follows: Resources of conventional natural gas are the total quantities of gas that are estimated, at a particular time, to be contained in, or that have been produced from, known accumulations, plus those estimated quantities in accumulations yet to be discovered. Discovered resources of conventional natural gas, which also may be referred to as initial volumes in place, are those quantities of gas that are estimated, at a particular time, to be initially contained in known accumulations that have been penetrated by a wellbore. They comprise those quantities that are recoverable from known accumulations and those that will remain in known accumulations, based on known technology under specified conditions that are generally accepted as being a reasonable outlook for the future.

It is a well established fact that finding rates of natural gas in western Canada have declined over the last thirty or so years. However, statistical analyses of the declining trends have, to date, failed to provide a generally acceptable estimate of the conventional natural gas resources of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. This paper provides an explanation of why decline analysis appears to provide a valid method for estimating the conventional crude oil resources of the basin while the same is not true for natural gas. The paper proposes solutions to the problems encountered in the natural gas data and provides an estimate of the conventional natural gas resources of the basin by statistical analyses of the declining finding rate trends. Introduction The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) occupies an area of 1.4 million square kilometres of southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the south-west corner of the Northwest Territories (Figure 1). Petroleum resources of the basin range from natural gas at the light end of the spectrum through conventional crude oil to bitumen. Conventional natural gas is that portion of this spectrum which exists in solution in crude oil or in the gaseous state in reservoirs having a permeability greater than about 0.1 md. Unconventional natural gas resources are those contained in low permeability reservoirs (tight gas), those associated with coal deposits (coalbed methane) and those contained in shale deposits (shale gas). Costs of extraction and transportation and natural gas prices are important determinants in the assessment of recoverable natural gas resources. However, consideration of the economic aspects of natural gas recovery is avoided by assuming a high natural gas price, in the order of $3.00 per mcf, so that estimates of recoverable resources are not constrained by price considerations. The Canadian Gas Potential Committee (CGPC) in its recent inaugural report1, focused on conventional natural gas in the WCSB. However, an analysis such as that reported in this paper was not included. CATEGORIES OF RESOURCES Definitions for categories of resources are taken from the Petroleum Society Monograph Number 1, Determination of Oil and Gas Reserves2. The definitions of primary interest in this paper are as follows: Resources of conventional natural gas are the total quantities of gas that are estimated, at a particular time, to be contained in, or that have been produced from, known accumulations, plus those estimated quantities in accumulations yet to be discovered. Discovered resources of conventional natural gas, which also may be referred to as initial volumes in place, are those quantities of gas that are estimated, at a particular time, to be initially contained in known accumulations that have been penetrated by a wellbore. They comprise those quantities that are recoverable from known accumulations and those that will remain in known accumulations, based on known technology under specified conditions that are generallyaccepted as being a reasonable outlook for the future. Undiscovered resources, which may also be referred to as future initial volumes in place, are those in-place quantities of gas that are estimated, at a particular time, to exist inaccumulations yet to be discovered.

Energy is an unavoidable component of our day-to-day living and an essential element of global progress. The significance of energy lies in its wide appropriateness and imperativeness. The demand for energy is increasing every year in parallel with population and economics. As the available conventional energy resources are limited and irrational consumption of these resources has a detrimental effect on environment, search for unconventional energy development and appraisal has been the need of this century. Unconventional energy resources like gas hydrates, shale gas, tight gas, and coal bed methane are huge resources of natural gas, which like conventional resources has huge potential to satiate our energy demand. Interest in natural gas is increasing exponentially mainly due to it being relatively clean with lesser overall CO2 emission, compared to coal and crude oil. Presence of natural gas hydrates in shallow geosphere has been recognized in recent years as a huge unconventional resource of clean methane. The significant amount of methane trapped in natural gas hydrate reservoirs generally found in permafrost and marine sediments makes this resource an attractive target for future energy security and sustainability. This chapter introduces natural gas hydrates, and its structural and reservoir information, provides a background for understanding its occurrence, and relates the importance of numerical simulation in understanding hydrate reservoirs. This chapter also discusses the methane-producing techniques from hydrate reservoirs, operational and natural geohazards associated with natural gas hydrates, and implications of gas hydrate reservoirs to global climate and finally describes the future prospects of natural gas hydrates. We believe that this chapter will work as a guideline for individuals from the academic to the research community to form a strong base to develop new methodologies to harness this huge natural gas resource.KeywordsGas hydratesProduction techniquesNumerical simulationOperational geohazardNatural geohazardGlobal climate

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide a general overview of the global oil and natural gas resources, production, technology development, energy use, emissions and costs. The activity is based on the European project “Risk of Energy Availability: Common Corridors for Europe Supply Security” (REACCESS) and the data collected was used in this project as an input to evaluate the technical, economical and environmental characteristics of the energy corridors to European Union (EU).Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on literature reviews and data collection from national authorities, oil companies, international associations and international organisations.FindingsThe work provides a general overview of oil and natural gas resources, production rates, recent technology developments, costs, losses, energy consumption and emissions on a world regional level. Main issues related to the role of conventional oil and natural gas in the energy import framework are summarised in this paper.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study provides information on conventional oil and natural gas resources and it is limited to primary production technologies.Originality/valueAn outline of oil and natural gas on a regional level is presented. The paper provides general introduction to the subject and it is a valuable input for modelling and analyses of conventional oil and natural gas in the present and in the future energy system.