Will the World resist KSA's shale gas boom?

[Yzd Khalifa]

Yzd, if you value Saudi Arabia and its citizens, there is two things you don't want :
SHALE GAS ...It will ruin your water tables...not talking on the fauna and human existence . I am saying this from personal experiences...WE have made ALGERIANS aware and there is a budding mouvement that is guetting stronger to counter act any DZ government laws to open Algerian soil for its exploitation.
WALMART...it will destroy all the small business...like a Tsunami.

Point taken.

Walmart is a threat to the world economy not to small business only :/

 

[Arabian Legend]

HONG KONG - Saudi Arabia signaled Monday that it intends to remain a world energy powerhouse for the foreseeable future, partly by exploiting new technology which has unlocked vast quantities of oil and natural gas in North America.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, will push ahead this year with exploratory drilling of shale and other unconventional gas reserves which could be twice the size of its conventional gas reserves, which total 286 trillion cubic feet, Minister of Oil Ali al-Naimi said.

Exploiting unconventional and renewable energy will allow Saudi Arabia to meet rising domestic demand while maintaining crude-oil exports, Mr. al-Naimi said, adding that his country "will not stint" in ensuring that its customers' oil needs are met.

"This year alone we are going to test seven wells for shale. We have rough estimates of 600 trillion cubic feet of unconventional shale gas. The potential is very huge and we plan to exploit it," he said during a Credit Suisse conference.

Mr. al-Naimi didn't offer a forecast of how quickly Saudi Arabia might achieve commercial production of shale gas or shale oil, or describe how it will supply the large amounts of water used in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the process used to extract oil and gas from shale.

In separate comments to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. al-Naimi said he anticipated that the country's shale-oil reserves could also be exploited, but added that "we have to find them."

Saudi Arabia has seen its lead over the U.S. in crude-oil production narrow sharply in the past year, thanks to rising shale-oil output in the U.S., where crude production in November and December topped 7 million barrels a day for the first time in 20 years. Saudi output eased to 9.2 million barrels a day in December, from 9.6 million the previous month.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently forecast that U.S. crude output will swell to 7.5 million barrels a day within six months. The International Energy Agency, which represents key oil consumers, has predicted the U.S. will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2020.

Saudi Arabia is known more for its massive crude-oil exports than its modest gas output, and so far it hasn't managed to increase gas production enough to replace oil as feedstock in planned petrochemical or electricity-generating projects.

Natural gas output from state giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, averaged 9.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2011, up from 9.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2010.

Aramco Chief Executive Khalid al-Falih said in December that the company plans to drill seven natural gas exploration wells in deep and shallow water in the Red Sea, off the coast of the northwestern city of Tabuk.

On Monday, Mr. al-Naimi said that prospects for global production of shale gas and oil--including in China, Ukraine, Poland and Saudi Arabia--were so promising that the kingdom might not need to continue with its decades-long policy of maintaining an oil-output cushion for use in case of global supply disruptions.

"It is not a question whether Saudi Arabia has spare [oil] capacity. It is a question of whether we need to spend billions maintaining it at all," Mr. al-Naimi said.

"New commercial reserves such as shale oil are good news for the global economy" and "will ensure even greater stability of markets and prices," he said.

Mr. al-Naimi said that the hopes of "two or three" members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that the pricing of crude oil in international trade will shift to a basket of currencies or the euro would not be realized.

"I don't think that is going to fly," he said.

Summer Said in Dubai contributed to this article.

Mr.AL-Naimi is saying that KSA will always remain the world top leader and influential player in the field of energy supply; oil, gas and minerals, actin toward the world as the world demands. KSA has the potential to become the world largest supply of solar energy in the near future. So yes I find this news unsurprising at all for the fact that KSA is very rich in term of natural resources and wants to always keep dominance over global market and prices. The credit goes to ARAMCO, MAADEN, SABIC, KFUPM and KACST and to the wise leaders of the country in the first place. Saudi Arabia is now moving away form oil and gas heading to other alternative energy sources such as nuclear and solar energy aiming to reduce domestic oil consumption in order to increase oil export. As for Water desalination plants will be fully operated by solar energy and are being taking care of by KACST.

@Yzd Khalifa

Saudis dare U.S. to play oil ball

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in Washington this week that the U.S. oil revolution was "great news" for an economy struggling to emerge from crippling recession. More oil reserves, like those from the Bakken and Three Forks formations, will add stability to an increasingly global market, he noted. That said, the United States will remain one of the top energy consumers in the world and will continue, without or without the shale revolution, to depend on Middle East oil. Talk of breaking away from overseas oil, his said, is a "naive (and) rather simplistic view."

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

@Arabian Legend

I couldn't agree more with your stance. Yes, I doubt that the US will become energy independent anytime soon.

Well, to set the record straight once more, the US will never become energy dependent ,period. As I mentioned earlier, the US consumes 20 million barrel a day and the figure is likely to increase by 10 million in the coming 10 years, which means that the US will have to seek more and more oil. Personally, I prefer to see the ME with less US influence in it. For KSA, I would rather keep doing more business with the east than the west these days, I think you already know the answer to that ..

You can't compare apples with oranges! The USSR collpase was imminent for various reasons.

Cheers

 

[Samlee]

Really? Congrats. To the best of the knowledge that I have, I know that Pakistan has a great deposit of natural gas, but that's new to me!

Yaay now for Pakistan you may continue to prosper ..

AHLAN WA SAHLAN MARHABA
Thank You Dear Brother,
According To The Latest Reports
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has estimated shale gas at 586 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) against its 2011 estimates of 52 Tcf for Pakistan. According to latest EIA study, the shale gas/oil reservoirs are much higher in Pakistan relative to what was estimated in the earlier studies/reports. The study estimates a total of 1,170 Tcf of risked shale gas in-place for India/Pakistan, 584 Tcf in India and 586 Tcf in Pakistan.

The risked technically recoverable shale gas resource is estimated at 201 Tcf, with 96 Tcf in India and 105 Tcf in Pakistan. In addition, the study estimates risked shale oil in-place for India/Pakistan of 314 billion barrels, with 87 billion barrels in India and 227 billion barrels in Pakistan. The risked technically recoverable shale oil resource is estimated at 12.9 billion barrels for these two countries, with 3.8 billion barrels for India and 9.1 billion barrels for Pakistan.

Shale gas reservoirs much higher than estimates: US EIA study | Business Recorder

 

[Samlee]

Mr. Naimi can shove it

Now we have the shale sh!t , a pipeline to Pakistan is much needed ...

Brother You Must Know Of The Trade and Energy Corridor China Is Building Through Gwadar.China Intends To Develop Gwadar Port,LNG and Crude Oil Terminals An Oil City and Energy Corridor Along with Refineries and Trans Karakoram Pipeline.Through This Infrastructure China Intends To Transport Its Energy Needs without having to go through the Unreliable malacca straits.

Brother You Must Know That Last Year China and Saudia Agreed To Build A Massive Oil Refinery In Yanbu and a 20-million-tonne oil depot in Hainan China.

It Would Be Great If GCC and China Co Invest With Pakistan To Build This Type Of Infrastructure In Gwadar Because China Intends To Import Energy and Raw Materials From Middle East and Africa Through Here.
Iran Has Already Decided To Build The IP Gas Pipeline and $4 Billion Oil Refinery in Gwadar

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Hopefully the future will be brighter than present.

Brother You Must Know Of The Trade and Energy Corridor China Is Building Through Gwadar.China Intends To Develop Gwadar Port,LNG and Crude Oil Terminals An Oil City and Energy Corridor Along with Refineries and Trans Karakoram Pipeline.Through This Infrastructure China Intends To Transport Its Energy Needs without having to go through the Unreliable malacca straits.

Brother You Must Know That Last Year China and Saudia Agreed To Build A Massive Oil Refinery In Yanbu and a 20-million-tonne oil depot in Hainan China.

It Would Be Great If GCC and China Co Invest With Pakistan To Build This Type Of Infrastructure In Gwadar Because China Intends To Import Energy and Raw Materials From Middle East and Africa Through Here.
Iran Has Already Decided To Build The IP Gas Pipeline and $4 Billion Oil Refinery in Gwadar