Tight Gas Development and Planning
15-18 June 2008
Hangzhou, China
In their 2007 study, Wood Mackenzie identified heavy oil, tight gas, coal bed methane and shale oil as “The Hidden Opportunity”. By 2025 unconventional oil is expected to have a market share greater than 20% of the global oil supply. Unconventional gas is likely to be as significant; for example, it will potentially account for over 40% of U.S. gas supply by 2010. The driver of this growth is the concern of secure future gas supply in a close North America gas system. Asia Pacific will have a lesser market share, but the growth in unconventional gas will definitely be substantially higher. Nevertheless, 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.
Unconventional resources are distributed widely around the globe; its development potential can be realised in the near term. These resources have common characteristics, but also have geographical uniqueness both technically and economically. Their developments have several obstacles remain. The key risk is not in discovering the resource, but in identifying the critical dynamics to enable economic development. The biggest challenge is the lack of a comprehensive policy that encourages development of unconventional gas fields using existing technology and knowledge. Also missing are funding and appropriate technology transfer to support exploration and development of these new unconventional resources. Other challenges facing the industry are the problem of water pollution associated with coal bed methane and gas shales, and the management of green house gas emissions.
Need Information?
Should you be interested to participate in this workshop, please contact Karen Khooi at SPE Asia Pacific Office (Kuala Lumpur) at telephone +60.3.2288.1233 or e-mail: kkhooi@spe.org.