Unconventional Gas Outlook: Resources, Economics, and Technologies
Energy Business Reports has just released its latest research report: “Unconventional Gas Outlook: Resources, Economics, and Technologies.” Energy Business Reports is an energy industry think tank and leading source for industry information and research products.
Natural gas has come a long way from the days when it was largely a waste byproduct sent to the flare. Today, natural gas meets more than 20% of the world’s primary energy requirements, and due to technological advances and favorable gas prices, many previously marginal economic gas resources are now economically viable.
Sources of natural gas that are more difficult and costly to extract (usually because of immature technology) are collectively known as unconventional natural gas resources (UCG). These unconventional gas sources are the focus of a comprehensive report recently published by Energy Business Reports.
Unconventional gas has become economically viable: The natural gas business model has changed drastically in the last decade. Deregulation and restructuring of the industry opened up new markets for natural gas, while, at the same time, new environmental legislation affected fuel demand patterns and led producers to reconsider the role of UCG in their exploration and development portfolios. Concurrent with these developments, recovery innovations significantly raised the recovery rate for unconventional gas reserves, and new technology advanced the monetization of remote gas and gas produced in marginal fields.
Natural gas from unconventional reservoirs is being targeted to contribute a greater share of the world’s natural gas supply in the next two decades. Independent producers are helping develop many of the new technologies and well-site strategies necessary to ensure that as much unconventional gas as possible will be available by 2025, when it will amount to about 44% of US domestic gas production. The objectives of technologies being used in unconventional reservoirs include enhanced productivity through increased exposure of the reservoir to the well bore; improved fluid-handling and disposal; reduced process-cycle times; declining materials and services costs; and better management of environmental risks and compliance.
The economics of UCG production: Although unconventional gas resources are abundant, they are costly to recover. UCG production was boosted in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the successful implementation of tax incentives designed to encourage their development. Since then, technological advancement has sustained production growth even in the absence of tax incentives, and increased production from unconventional gas resources has offset a decline in conventional gas production.
The Unconventional Gas Outlook report also includes a breakdown of UCG potential by geographic regions, a review of existing UCG projects, an overview of industry initiatives, and a comprehensive list of major players in the UCG industry.
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