Shale Gas, an energy innovation:India is willing to adopt
Shale Gas, an energy innovation:India is willing to adopt:-
India has been prominently consuming energy from coal, hydro, nuclear and from past few years by natural gas. India is the fourth largest energy consumer throughout the world though there is a critical shortage of electricity generation capacity. Now can this shale gas alter the fortune of India?
Past half a decade, analysts were foretelling that the US will be importing natural gas at an increasing rate as they will be drying out their own resources. The crackling accomplishment of the oil companies in the US in producing the shale gas resources at large extent has changed the doom of energy deficit country to a surplus one. Can this shale gas prove as a silver bullet to India as that in US? A small insight about the shale gas would lead to the opinions.
Shale gas is unconventional source of natural gas found in shale formations. It is present in the form of bubbles in the impermeable shale rock. They are rich in organic matter and chemically it consists of methane. Shale gas has come into limelight due to technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
The way to extract the shale gas is to vertically drill till it penetrates the shale rock and then make a channel in the shale formations parallel to the ground known as horizontal drilling. Water is mixed with sand and chemicals (Hydrochloric acid and carcinogens) and the mixture is injected at high pressure into these channels to create fractures which release shale gas. This is known as hydraulic fracturing or otherwise known as fracking. The efficiency of these works will mainly define the rate of production of shale gas.
In India the potential of extraction of shale gas is high. India being one of the largest consumers of oil and petroleum products imports more than half of oil and gas requirements. Shale gas production in India itself will truncate the increasing trade imports. This will lead India to substantially decrease its dependency on Middle East countries. The recent hikes in electricity price in India are affecting the public and the manufacturing companies. As the US have cutoff their electricity prices by shale gas production, India could be expecting the same in the coming years. The shale gas production can be effective in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions when compared to coal production though it refers to produce more than the conventional gas.
Positive side of this technology has had a great impact on India as an energy deficit country and is alluring towards investments in this sector. Every technology has its good and bad faces, so this technology too has its challenging issues which have to be improved to get the environmental nod. A large amount of water is required to be pumped into this borehole for fracking. India’s water scarcity condition can’t afford large amounts of water as one seventh of the world’s population is dependent on the 4% of the world’s water resources. For this, Indian authority has found a remedy and has assured of starting these projects in coastal areas and areas with high rainfall and water logging. With large of water comes large amounts of chemicals i.e. the deadly hydrochloric acid and carcinogens that would remain in borehole and can contaminate the ground water. An alternative way of fracking has been found by GasFrac of Alberta, Canada by using liquefied propane instead of mixture of water and chemicals.
The increasing no. of earthquakes has been eminent in the US after the shale gas production started. One of the theories suggests that it is due to water pushed back into the fault that tends to cause earthquake by slippage of fault. This is the area this technology has to be improvised further.
India has a long way to go before it can successfully extract shale gas. In India, shale gas will be targeted at Cambay basin, Assam Arakan basin, Damodar Valley, KG Basin and Cauvery basin. The estimates of shale gas reserves are estimated to be around 60 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Indian Oil Corporation, OIL, GAIL and RIL have started to invest in this sector in USA. Realizing the huge potential of shale gas reserves in India, Government of India is geared up to attract best companies for
its exploration purposes. It would entirely depend on the policy regulations made by the government realizing the issues of water, land etc for sustainable development.
read also:-
India has been prominently consuming energy from coal, hydro, nuclear and from past few years by natural gas. India is the fourth largest energy consumer throughout the world though there is a critical shortage of electricity generation capacity. Now can this shale gas alter the fortune of India?
Past half a decade, analysts were foretelling that the US will be importing natural gas at an increasing rate as they will be drying out their own resources. The crackling accomplishment of the oil companies in the US in producing the shale gas resources at large extent has changed the doom of energy deficit country to a surplus one. Can this shale gas prove as a silver bullet to India as that in US? A small insight about the shale gas would lead to the opinions.
Shale gas is unconventional source of natural gas found in shale formations. It is present in the form of bubbles in the impermeable shale rock. They are rich in organic matter and chemically it consists of methane. Shale gas has come into limelight due to technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
In India the potential of extraction of shale gas is high. India being one of the largest consumers of oil and petroleum products imports more than half of oil and gas requirements. Shale gas production in India itself will truncate the increasing trade imports. This will lead India to substantially decrease its dependency on Middle East countries. The recent hikes in electricity price in India are affecting the public and the manufacturing companies. As the US have cutoff their electricity prices by shale gas production, India could be expecting the same in the coming years. The shale gas production can be effective in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions when compared to coal production though it refers to produce more than the conventional gas.
Positive side of this technology has had a great impact on India as an energy deficit country and is alluring towards investments in this sector. Every technology has its good and bad faces, so this technology too has its challenging issues which have to be improved to get the environmental nod. A large amount of water is required to be pumped into this borehole for fracking. India’s water scarcity condition can’t afford large amounts of water as one seventh of the world’s population is dependent on the 4% of the world’s water resources. For this, Indian authority has found a remedy and has assured of starting these projects in coastal areas and areas with high rainfall and water logging. With large of water comes large amounts of chemicals i.e. the deadly hydrochloric acid and carcinogens that would remain in borehole and can contaminate the ground water. An alternative way of fracking has been found by GasFrac of Alberta, Canada by using liquefied propane instead of mixture of water and chemicals.
The increasing no. of earthquakes has been eminent in the US after the shale gas production started. One of the theories suggests that it is due to water pushed back into the fault that tends to cause earthquake by slippage of fault. This is the area this technology has to be improvised further.
India has a long way to go before it can successfully extract shale gas. In India, shale gas will be targeted at Cambay basin, Assam Arakan basin, Damodar Valley, KG Basin and Cauvery basin. The estimates of shale gas reserves are estimated to be around 60 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Indian Oil Corporation, OIL, GAIL and RIL have started to invest in this sector in USA. Realizing the huge potential of shale gas reserves in India, Government of India is geared up to attract best companies for
its exploration purposes. It would entirely depend on the policy regulations made by the government realizing the issues of water, land etc for sustainable development.
read also:-
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