Acceptability Issues Supersede Technology for European Shales

In North America it took a couple of decades of perseverance and pushing the envelope technologically to be able to successfully frack a well and produce natural gas. Even though that’s possible, the transfer of that know-how to Europe’s shale basins may have a steeper hill to climb in cultivating public acceptance of shale gas.

That was part of the message at European Unconventional Gas Summit Paris 2011 from French energy firm Total’s Bruno Courme, Managing Director, Gas Shales Europe, who gave a talk entitled How can the North American experience help achieve European goals?

“Unconventional gas is being questioned in the press,” he explained. “It is clearly legitimate and justified. We need to address those questions. We are still at a very preliminary stage of our studies. We need to progress on our analysis before we can give the full answers. We can’t say what kind of fracking fluid is being used until we know the geology.”

Technology, meanwhile, is still in the equation; Courme said it was important to rely on it to help achieve goals towards successful production of natural gas.

“NA is the only place in the world where shale gas is being widely developed. Europe has high energy needs but is a bit reluctant,” explained Courme.  “It would be too easy if you could copy-past what has happened in North America into Europe, which is a lot less like Texas.”

He went on to list the challenges of unconventional drilling in Europe.

“Any industrial project will face technical challenges like how deep, is it laterally continuous, frackability, and sources of water.”

Courme also listed the economic challenges like well cost, local industry, and others like acceptability, population density, water usage, oil and gas culture, and environmental awareness.

“These challenges are linked,” he said. “The cost of the well will depend on the depth. Reduced water consumption will bring some technical challenges.”

The challenges, he said, were not all of the same magnitude. “In North America the technical challenges were the big hurdle; in Europe, it will be acceptability, so it’s something we definitely need to take into account. How can technology help us approach these?”

According to Courme, the keys to that will involve water management and surface installations and activities management.

“How many wells will you have, and how much traffic around them?”

Reduction of the number of production wells, he said, was one aspect where technology might help. Reduction of the impact of industrial activities, for example, could involve reducing the noise of compressors, or lowering the CO2 emissions of my trucks.

Limiting the impact of surface installations and activities, said Courme, was also crucial.

“I want to say that every one of my wells is going to deliver, which requires a better understanding of geology. We need to be able to afford seismic data, well data acquisition.”

He asked: “Do we need 10,000 cubic meters of water to frack a well? How can we reduce water consumption? Can we use sea water? If we are going to use brine, then must address the issues of interactions in the process.”

Courme reported that the press was addressing the risks of pollution in connection with fracking fluids. “In the composition of products, can we use ones from the food industry? We need better understanding of the frac mechanisms as well.”

He said it was about reducing its perception, stating, “We wont be able to use companies that don’t want to reveal their additives composition.”

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing would definitely require an “act local” stance from the industry, according to Mr. Courme.

“Each potential area of interest has its own technology, economics and acceptability challenges. In Europe it’s in a very preliminary stage and so is Total on its acreage, be it in France or Denmark. It’s the right time to ask ourselves all those questions, today.”

Courme ended by saying: “We are discussing with service companies what the practical points to address will be, as we can’t do this by ourselves.”