Pakistan's vast Shale Oil & Gas Reserves | Updates & Discussions

[FaujHistorian]

That's good news. Now for the bad news....

It takes two barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil shale liquid (source: Argonne National Laboratory and RAND). And without cutting-edge water treatment technology, the water discharge from oil shale refining will increase salinity in surrounding water, to unacceptable levels poisoning the local area.

So then, to extract 9 billion barrels of shale oil, you would need 18 billion barrels of water!!. And that is the hitch! But there's more bad news.....In addition to the environmental impacts of oil shale, and the huge requirement of clean water, vast amounts of energy are required to support production. NRDC cites Rand Corporation estimates that generating 100,000 barrels of shale oil would require 1,200 megawatts of power—or the equivalent of a new power plant capable of serving a city of 500,000 people!!

And then, shale oil production faces huge technical and environmental obstacles and is many times more expensive to extract compared to crude oil. Shale oil, has not yet been commercially developed even in the United States, only shale gas, because of the huge investments involved and technical aspects that have not been mastered so far.

Considering this, it would be a decade or more for Pakistan to exploit its reserves, though extracting shale gas would be comparatively easier and the way forward. Shale oil extraction would be financially unaffordable for Pakistan as the infrastructure required would be gargantuan.

Orion Ji,

Kiyon baatain kertay ho dil dukhanay ki. (Don't break the little hearts with this analysis).

Good job in explaining this.



One of the things that I try to explain by fellow countrymen, is that we are in a chicken and egg situation.


For all these major resources to be utilized rather "Quickly",

we need to attract Europeans and especially Americans who have the latest tech.

In order to do so, we need to lower our ghussa our anger on everything American.

Until we take a national class on "anger management", Americans are not coming (at least not the civilian variety).

And if American tech is not available, How on earth we are going to exploit shale gas, shale oil, Thar coal, gold, copper etc. etc.


Some say Chinese will come instead of Americans.


The problem is that Chinese will only go where Americans feel safe for investment.

Chinese and Americans are linked via $trillion worth of trade.

They will not jeopardize it in favor of few millions here and few millions there.


peace

 

[Al Bhatti]

A country without natural resources + a capable leader (government) = a developed country

A country without natural resources + corrupt leader (government) = underdeveloped country or at most semi developing country

A country with natural resources + corrupt leader (government) = underdeveloped country or at most semi developing country

A country with natural resources + capable leader (government) = a developed country

So to become a semi industrialized country or a fast developing country is the most valuable resource of any country it's own citizens (180+ million Pakistanis) not enough to get a capable leader (government)?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Some say Chinese will come instead of Americans.


The problem is that Chinese will only go where Americans feel safe for investment.

Not true, Iran and North Korea being the most obvious examples.

 

[RangerPK]

It would be far more wiser a move to even allow Indian oil companies as it would deepen economic cooperation and prevent future wars.

There is no economic battle between India and Pakistan as i know because we just refuse to increase trade ties.

I think India should mind her own business and stay away from Pakistan. India is not trust worthy.

 

[JohnyD]

I think India should mind her own business and stay away from Pakistan. India is not trust worthy.

yes and Pakistan is not investment worthy...so sit on your coal and gas reserves and spend your whole life begging to other nations....

keep one thing in mind, you will never even see a developed Pakistan if u dont change your attitude and mindset....look at the indians in this forum, they immediately extended the support and started talking about cooperation in this sector...and u ppl started responding like u ve now $ 6 trillion reserved in your national bank...

to make $6 trillion, u will ve to pour in couple of trillions dollars....u know how much that amount is?

 

[FaujHistorian]

Not true, Iran and North Korea being the most obvious examples.

Look I don't want to start this long discussion on China.

Chinese are smart business people.

I wish Pakistanis are as smart and hard working and as humble and as tourist friendly as Chinese people.

as far Chinese investment is concerned. Sure they trade with Iran and NK, but the volume and contracts are no where comparable to the Western dominated countries.


case in point. Iraq.

Chinese have way more contracts in Iraq compared to iran.

Same way Chinese trade volume with Japan and South Korea exceeds by huge amounts compared to NK.


That's the point I was making here.


peace

 

[Hulk]

I see such threads about trillion dollar coal/gas etc often. Yet you will see that nothing changes in that country for year's. If this is really true Pakistan should soon be like Saudi. We will see if that happens. Investment to drill the gas should not be an issue, 100's of company will do that for a trillion dollar asset.
However if that does no happen, consider estimates were blown out of proportion, maybe by fan boys or politicians.

 

[JohnyD]

I see such threads about trillion dollar coal/gas etc often. Yet you will see that nothing changes in that country for year's. If this is really true Pakistan should soon be like Saudi. We will see if that happens. Investment to drill the gas should not be an issue, 100's of company will do that for a trillion dollar asset.
However if that does no happen, consider estimates were blown out of proportion, maybe by fan boys or politicians.

issue is nobody is willing to invest big in Pak's mineral explorations...their all vedar ally China too is stll shying away from thar coal reserve!

So, all these trillion dollar reseve thing only sounds good in news but in reality pakistan has acute shortage of power and they literally have to import it from its arch rival India..!

And here internet warriors see Indian as not trusth worthy and Indian companies should not be allowed to participate in explorations....lol

 

[Edevelop]

Please don't touch this resource now. First we need to create a climate where there is no corruption and no terrorism.

 

[Albatross]

keep one thing in mind, you will never even see a developed Pakistan if u dont change your attitude and mindset....look at the indians in this forum, they immediately extended the support and started talking about cooperation in this sector...

There is a lot that both Pakistan and India can get from each other and I guess india would get more by getting OIL,Gas pipeline links from Iran and central asia and rail,road links to export its goods to Iran , af'tan and CA saving india billions of dollar monthly in terms of transportation charges .
But unfortunately india's continued aggression in kashmir and denial of rights to kashmiries has brought our relations to a point where no one trust each other and same translates into rogue behavior from both sides even at this forum and at all levels of interactions . Indians fail to see what they can get by just solving kashmir dispute .

As far as your blabbering about pak is concerned well living standards in pak are still better than India and this chaos at home has seen its peak in 08-09 when we witnessed largest number of suicide attacks but is now on decline and once US withdraws in 2014 things are gonna get much better as Pakistan has changed its strategy towards Iran as well which is evident from IP project . Thus getting us Irani support in afghanistan as well along with pakhtoons will pave way for a pakistan favored state in afghanistan ensuring peace on our westeren borders .

No wonder why america wants a bigger role of India in af'tan as they are afraid if Pak , Iran and af'tan sit together all american puppets including india would be kicked out of that region .

So for us Pakistani's future is very promising if we can manage a GDP growth of 3-4 % in all these chaotic times managing something around 10-12% wont be a issue once this dust settles and I havnt mentioned yet china anad gwadar link so you better worry about how to feed the worlds largest hungry population which lives in india and how to build cheap toilets for your masses .

 

[Argus Panoptes]

I see it as a very encouraging sign.

The first step toward any major new discoveries of mineral resources is always a geological survey and estimate. It's this work that entices exploration companies to drill and prove.

Oh I agree with that completely. I was just pointing vast gap between a presentation to the governor about the exploration program and the headline claiming that the region is "abundant in oil, gas, say experts" when in fact they have discovered nothing substantial, and are only embarking on a search.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

Global warming will assume more and more importance. There are countries in the world that are going to be submerged in next 20 years, with that comes huge humanitarian crisis. Than there is also a great danger of decrease in crop production because of global warming as fertile lands around the world are slowly turning into deserts.

If not controlled, Global warming may well spell the end of human on this planet.

NOTHING of the sort will happen. The models are hysterically WRONG. Submerged countries? No crops? End of humanity? Hahahaaaa! The planet has been far warmer before and will be warming and cooling on its own cycles for thousands of years. And humanity will adapt. Hint: How many times has the Sahara desert been an ocean before in Earth's history? It is the height of arrogance to think mankind will control the global climate.

 

[Bobby]

So now Pakistan is bigger economy than China

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

So now Pakistan is bigger economy than China

$8.3 trillion is our annual economic output.

 

[RazorMC]

NOTHING of the sort will happen. The models are hysterically WRONG. Submerged countries? No crops? End of humanity? Hahahaaaa! The planet has been far warmer before and will be warming and cooling on its own cycles for thousands of years. And humanity will adapt. Hint: How many times has the Sahara desert been an ocean before in Earth's history? It is the height of arrogance to think mankind will control the global climate.

I agree with this point. Global temperatures have been going up and down on their own, even before man stepped out of caves. But I also feel that the massive human population is something that the earth has never encountered before. Not be a neo-Malthusian, but the numbers are against earth's welfare.