Russia Touts Unconventional Gas Promise
Russia may have 2 1/2 times more unconventional gas resources than conventional supplies, according to OAO Gazprom.
The country may hold as much as 680 trillion cubic meters of unconventional resources, which include gas from shale, sandstones and coal beds, Viktor Skorobogatov, director of the gas resources center at Gazprom’s VNIIGAZ research unit, said in an interview in the company’s corporate magazine.
“No country in the world can compete with Russia in terms of the volume of natural-gas reserves and its vast resource potential in both traditional and unconventional,” commented Skorobogatov. Russia’s conventional gas resources total at least 250 trillion cubic meters, out of a global total of 600 trillion to 650 trillion cubic meters, he said.
The holder of the world’s biggest natural-gas reserves, Russia has concentrated on conventional gas production. However, that focus saw the nation overtaken by the U.S. as No. 1 gas producer in 2009, as advances in technology made shale drilling economically feasible in North America.
Gazprom and Russian officials had originally downplayed the prospects and impact of the unconventional gas "revolution". However, President Vladimir Putin shifted course this past April, urging Russian energy producers to “rise to the challenge” of a changing market. With Putin's acknowledgment of the impact of shale-gas production, Russia says it is now “actively studying,” the hydraulic fracturing process.
Russia’s shale-gas resources are estimated at about 5 trillion to 20 trillion cubic meters, Skorobogatov said. Hydrates account for about 75 percent of all the nation’s unconventional resources, or 500 trillion cubic meters, followed by tight gas at 110 trillion cubic meters and coal-bed methane at 50 trillion cubic meters, he said.
As much as 90 percent of Russia’s unconventional resources are located in the east, mainly in the Urals and Siberia, according to Skorobogatov. Coal-bed methane and tight-gas ventures, already under development as pilot projects, may start producing after 2020, while development of hydrates and shale won’t start before 2025 or 2030, he said.