Shale oil in the USA and the world. See what "Shale Oil" is in other dictionaries

Lack of technology.

- how much is this?
The use of the hydraulic fracturing method leads to fairly rapid wear and aging of the well. Already a year after the start of well development, there is an 80% drop in production volumes. That is why oil companies use wells for one and a half to two years. After that, it becomes necessary to stop production and search for the drilling of new wells at a significant distance from the abandoned workings.
Another significant disadvantage of using this shale oil production technology is the increased emission carbon dioxide. During hydraulic fracturing, the amount of carbon dioxide released increases dramatically. It is common knowledge that carbon dioxide leads to problems with the ozone layer, which is the protection for the entire planet from radiation from space. Currently, oil producers and scientists from leading universities are developing special technologies that will allow the capture of carbon dioxide, which is released when a reservoir is blasted. Subsequently, the captured carbon dioxide will be processed into electricity. Thus, they plan to increase the efficiency of shale oil production.

Content

Section 1. Scenario for the development of shale oil production.

shale oil - a mineral from the group of solid caustobiolites, which, during dry distillation, gives a significant amount of resin (similar in composition to black gold). From one ton of enriched black gold slate with the latest technologies only 0.5-1.25 barrels can be produced black gold. In addition, the mining method of mining causes great harm to nature.

Production Development Scenario shale oil

The United States has made great strides in the development of shale gas technologies. In this regard, there were talks about a possible redistribution of the world gas market. If the oilmen make a similar breakthrough, it will entail even greater changes. However, experts reassure: abrupt changes in market black gold and gas should not be expected in the coming years.

Now scientists different countries solve technological problems that arose at the beginning of the production of shale gas and black gold. In particular, there is a search for ways to reduce the cost of water in the production of hydraulic fracturing. The initial cost of production is also expected to decrease.

The introduction of new technologies (developments) in the production of ground oil and the gas industry, along with energy savings in the consumption sector, will soon radically change the global energy market, emphasized in the annual report of the International Energy Agency. The United States will take the 1st place in the world in terms of oil production, the flows of Middle Eastern black gold will go mainly to Asian country, and Russia will fall to the 3rd position in the world in terms of ground oil extraction after USA and Saudi Arabia.

The base version of the forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA) assumes a rapid - one-third - growth in demand for traditional, in particular, the next two decades. Alternative sources energy during this period will not be able to take a significant share in the global energy balance. Moreover, , and will provide 60% of the increase in world demand.

Per Last year Americans managed to significantly increase production shale gas, so some experts started talking about the "shale revolution", when people learn to extract not only shale gas but also shale oil. This will entail serious changes in the global economy, because in this case countries alternative energy will no longer be needed and.

According to the magazine "However", the production of one barrel shale oil in Texas costs only 15 dollars, and in subsequent years will fall by about 2 times. V Saudi Arabia shale oil costs 7 dollars, and in Russian Federation- approximately 20 dollars. Moreover, deposits of shale hydrocarbons are evenly distributed throughout the territory of our planet, therefore they are available in every country.

Where did the magazine get these data- it is unknown, because in fact, few people have a reliable information about the real cost shale oil.

G. Birga seems more plausible. He claims that shale oil is now worth not $15, but $70-90, which is much more. cost extraction of ordinary black gold. for black gold and gas from the Bank of Moscow, D. Borisov calculates the cost of black gold according to costs mining the blood of the earth in the Gulf of Guinea or the Gulf of Mexico. Now they are about $ 80 per , which corresponds to the current cost of black gold.

Apparently, the statement "However" about uniform distribution hydrocarbons also has no basis. G. Birg noted that not all countries have shale oil. 70% of the reserves of such black gold are in USA, and 7% (second place) - in Russian Federation. The largest deposits shale oil in our country are in the Bazhenov suite (Western Siberia).

By the way, industry experts are ambivalent about the term “shale oil”. “Usually they talk about heavy bituminous black gold or oil sands,” D. Borisov explained.

According to G. Birg, the world reserves of such black gold exceed 3 trillion barrels, and the reserves of conventional black gold are 1.3 trillion barrels. In addition, many experts have reason to hope for technological progress in this area.

The greatest hope is given by the breakthrough of the Americans in the field of shale gas production, however, such a process has not yet been observed in the black gold market. The fact is that until new alternative mining technologies have appeared, and all existing ways production is several times more expensive than traditional ones.

According to the head of the analytical department of the investment organization "Aton" V. Bunkov, it is still impossible to imagine that the production of shale oil in the future will cost less than the production of traditional black gold. All because process Shale oil production is more complex. For example, to extract bituminous oil, you need to pump a huge amount of water into the reservoirs. Shale oil will be able to pay for itself if black gold on the market rises above $150 per barrel.

According to V. Birg, in the next couple of decades, Russian black gold exporters will not be threatened by shale. Moreover, if oil prices rise and there are new technologies (developments) shale oil production, then Russia will only benefit from this.

Shale oil is

True, D. Borisov's opinion on this matter is much less optimistic. He believes that the reduction in the cost of shale oil production technologies will lead to a fall in world oil prices and oil revenues of the Russian Federation, which today make up a significant part of the budget. It is not easy to make up for financial losses by increasing oil production. The analyst also expressed confidence that the decline in the price of shale gas and black gold will not lead to major changes in the global oil and gas market, because process the extraction of these hard-to-reach minerals is actually fraught with many pitfalls.

The rapid increase in oil and gas production in the United States, IEA experts believe, will cause dramatic changes in global trade flows: the vast majority (90%) of black gold mined in the Middle East will be shipped to Asian countries by 2035.

As a result, the United States will no longer need to be so actively involved in ensuring the security of sea lanes, through which the main oil flows now pass. The safety of navigation in these regions will increasingly be ensured by Asian countries. In the United States itself, some experts are already raising the question of the advisability of the presence of the American navy in the Persian Gulf. As the discussion on ways to reduce the budget deficit grows, this topic will become more and more relevant.

Global on forecast analysts IEA will grow faster than the demand for black gold. By 2035, it will increase by 50% and reach 5 trillion cubic meters. m. Approximately half of the increase in blue fuel production will be provided by shale deposits in the USA, Australia and China. The most active increase in gas consumption will be fast-growing growth India and China.

Another trend in the global energy market, according to forecast IEA, will reduce the role of nuclear energy. For obvious reasons, after the recent accident at Fukushima, decisions to abandon nuclear power plants have already been taken by many countries, in whose territory one fifth of all nuclear power plants. The main alternative to nuclear power plants will be blue fuel, the production of which will grow in many countries, primarily in China, the United States and australia.

However, IEA experts believe that the active introduction energy saving technologies could reduce global growth in demand for energy carriers almost double. Effective use energy resources can create conditions for reducing global demand for energy carriers by 20%, which will give a total economic effect of $ 18 trillion. The biggest gain from the fight for the decline expenses energy can get the US, India and China.

In the Russian Federation, the average daily will be over 10 million barrels until approximately 2020. Then this figure will begin to decline and by 2035 will be about 9 million barrels per day. This will allow us to maintain an honorable, but still only third place in terms of oil production in the world after the United States and Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, our country will remain one of the largest energy exporters, its profit from the supply of fuel resources (black gold, natural gas , coal) to world markets by 2035 will increase to 410 billion dollars. in year.

Some experts traditionally express doubts about the forecasts of the IEA, which represents the interests of countries that consume black gold, and remind that over the past 15 years it is difficult to remember that these forecasts came true even half. At the same time, a number of Analystovs, in particular Vladimir Milov, head of the Energy Policy Institute Foundation, note that there is no reason to doubt the objectivity of the IEA experts, given their qualifications and many years of experience in developing forecasts for the development of the international energy market.

In the US, prices are almost independent of tensions in the Middle East, while in Europe and Asia is the main factor in pricing. According to Analysts agencies, this situation will continue until the "shale technologies" from America spread to the whole world.

According to IEA calculations, the situation will change in 2035 - precisely to this deadline The shale revolution will sweep the world.

The Russian Federation also has shale oil, this is the so-called Bazhenov formation, a layer located in Western Siberia, which we cannot yet develop. Technologies to create within the power of the Russian Federation.

But this requires a huge investment. Leonid Fedun believes: the game is worth the candle, because the reserves of the retinue are colossal. So far, he emphasizes, the domestic fuel and energy complex has not been seriously engaged in innovative developments.

True, on this moment majority Analystov all the same, they believe that over the next 20 years (according to calculations, this is how long the explored and proven reserves of petroleum products will be enough in the Russian Federation) original cost shale oil cannot be made lower than traditional oil. The same G. Birg calls as real at the present time initial cost its 70-90 dollars per barrel, which is clearly inferior to the cost of producing "ordinary oil".

Such situation. 10-20 years give us today analysts- this is the time during which our country must modernize its economy.

Gazprom, which had previously publicly denied the extraction of shale gas, suddenly drew attention to another unconventional, but promising resource - oil from the same combustible shale. The oil "daughter" of the monopoly "oil" "" took up the development of giant deposits shale in Western Siberia, together with organization Shell. According to preliminary estimates, the reserves of the facility being developed exceed the reserves of the largest operating field in the world by no less than 30 times.

Shale gas in the 2000s essentially blew up the entire world gas supply. Thanks to the widespread introduction of fracking technology, or hydraulic fracturing, the Americans have learned how to extract gas from shale rocks, significantly reducing. Cheap gas poured into the US market and conquered it within a couple of years. America began to produce more, and import, respectively, less, which had a strong pressure on prices around the world. Gazprom, the main European supplier, has so far managed to maintain high prices linked to the cost of black gold, but a change in this order of things is apparently becoming a matter of time. Moreover, more and more new speculators are joining the race for shale gas, such as, for example, China.

Shale oil is a completely different matter. Although many firms are interested in the prospect of its development, it is actively mined in a few places. The largest site is the Bakken Formation located in the US states of Montana and North Dakota, with partial entry into the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Mass mining there began in 2000.

Shale oil is

At first, the figures were modest and in the early years did not exceed 50,000 barrels per day. However, as infrastructure developed and technology improved, the Bakken attracted more and more investment. All this resulted in a local oil boom in North Dakota. In September 2012, the total production of shale oil exceeded 600,000 barrels per day, which amounted to about 8 percent of the total oil production in the United States.

Bakken's total reserves are estimated at 24 billion barrels (3.3 billion tons), the largest conventional deposits. For example, the famous Mexican Cantarelle originally contained about 5 billion tons. Approximately the same amount was kept by the domestic Samotlor, which for decades was the leader in West Siberian oil production. Now both of these fields are largely depleted, their production rates are steadily declining. New oil fields with comparable reserves are not visible on the horizon.

Given the economic and energy costs, it is difficult to say whether these Bakken reserves can be fully utilized. However, while production is growing, and many millions of tons of black gold mined there fully justified the interest and large-scale production. This confirms that shale oil certainly has a future.

Our country, by the way, was one of the pioneers in the development of oil shale. For example, during the Soviet era, shale was explored in Estonia and began to be mined - the plant is still operating. This, of course, is a different technology, since oil was already extracted at the production site, and not directly in the bowels. In addition, the slates themselves were used as fuel. However, a move in this direction could provide early exploitation for fields like the Bakken.

But it didn't work out. And it is quite understandable why - since the Second World War, the world has lived in an abundance of cheap, easily accessible black gold. Prices for it were raised mostly artificially, for example, as part of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. For oil-producing countries, the question "how to avoid market glut" was more relevant than "where to look for new deposits?"

But world economy grew, new industrial powers entered the game, demand for fuel increased rapidly. "Conventional" black gold is no more. Some scientists put forward the theory of the "peak of black gold", which was supposed to occur on a global scale already in the 2000s (in the USA, a local peak was reached in 1970). It is possible that it has come - but only in relation to traditional oil fields.

Shale oil is

In conditions when the price of oil, despite any crises, fluctuates around $100 per barrel, non-traditional sources arouse a completely different level of interest. Their development is gradually becoming a vital necessity. This is especially true for the United States, which, unlike Europe and Japan, are not in a hurry to follow the path of energy saving, but rely on high technologies in the field of production.

Characteristically, all large quantity American companies is starting to switch from shale gas production to shale oil, and in the same fields. The explanation is simple: because of the "shale revolution" gas prices in the US have plummeted, while oil remains extremely expensive. Although the cost of development is still high - the minimum cost for a company to extract oil from a shale field is $15 per barrel produced, the average is about $60.

In the Russian Federation, Gazprom is widely blamed for the breakthrough in industries he missed shale gas. There is some truth in these reproaches, but let's not forget that Russia has been and remains the leader in the reserves of traditional natural gas- and besides slates, there is something to mine. That is, claims should be made to production efficiency, pricing, but to a much lesser extent - to the very absence of research in the field of shale gas. With black gold, the picture is different: although production is at a record level of 500 (plus or minus) million tons per year, it is no longer growing in principle, and according to industry analysts, it has reached a plateau, after which a fall will inevitably follow. It is no coincidence that the government is so concerned about tax benefits for oil producers.

Benefits also apply to the so-called Bazhenov Formation - a giant rock platform in Western Siberia. That's where they plan to work. NK Gazprom Neft"and Shell. The platform area is many times larger than the Bakken formation and is about a million square kilometers - this is more than the entire area of ​​Texas. If the formation is as saturated with black gold as the Bakken, then its potential exceeds the capabilities of the North American deposit by 30 times. Such reserves of the Russian Federation could be enough for many decades of production.

In addition, according to geologists, the oil contained in the Bazhenov formation is classified as light and in its consistency resembles high-quality North Sea Brent. However, experts tend to be extremely cautious about specific indicators of the volume of reserves (figures from 20 to 100 billion tons appear), saying that the possibilities of the formation have not really been explored.

This is exactly what the Russian-British partnership will have to do in the coming years. By the way, " OAO Gazprom Neft"and Shell are not the only hunters for West Siberian shale. One of the terms of the agreement between Open joint stock company Rosneft and the American ExxonMobil was just a joint study of the possibilities of the Bazhenov formation. What will come of all this - we will find out in a few years. Practice shows that in matters of geology, initial enthusiastic expectations rarely come true, but progress, nevertheless, is underway.

Shale oil is a mineral that is extracted from deposits of organic origin, which are the remains of an animal and plant origin under the influence of time and geological factors.

Shale oil is divided into two types:

The first type is conventional oil consisting of light fractions, which is located in tight reservoirs. This type of oil is usually produced using hydraulic fracturing and drilling horizontal wells. In the United States, this type of oil is called the term "Tight Oil" (tight Oil)

The second type of shale oil is called "shale oil", which is extracted from a special substance located in shale rock - kerogen.

What is kerogen?

This is a substance that is in the process of being converted into ordinary oil. To speed up the process of converting kerogen into oil, it is thermally treated. heat treatment Kerogen decomposes into components. It is not cheap to produce such oil, because heating a well to a certain temperature is a very labor-intensive task.

Today, shale oil is produced in two ways.

The first way is when the rock saturated with oil is loaded into the face and fed up, where it is processed in special installations to obtain oil fractions.

The second method is used when the oil-bearing rock is at a great depth. In order to extract oil from the depth, horizontal wells are drilled, then water is injected into the well. Next, a hydrodynamic shock is created, as a result of which the rock in the well begins to crack in many places. In these cracks and leaks of oil that was previously in the rock.
Such production is a great danger for the region. Since methane and oil enter the ground water, and then household plumbing. Recently, a video on YouTube has become quite popular, where a person opens a faucet in the kitchen, water starts to flow, he brings a lit match to a stream of water and it flares up like a torch.

These two methods of shale oil production are very labor-intensive and expensive. The cost of the first production method is about 90-100 dollars per barrel, and the second method is already much cheaper, 50-60 dollars.
Russian oil, which is produced in Siberia, costs about 15 dollars per barrel. In Saudi Arabia, the price of oil is even cheaper and is only 8 dollars (see the meaning of the word barrel).

The largest shale mining sites in the USA:

• Monterey located in California (600 million barrels)
• Bakken, which is located in North Dakota (3.65 billion barrels)
• Eagle Ford located in Texas (3 billion barrels)

Actually the appearance of relatively simple ways The world is indebted to George Mitchell for the production of shale oil.

Although this guy did not discover any shale oil fields and did not invent methods for its extraction, but having his own company, Mitchell Energy, he wanted to make shale oil production profitable.

First 1980 years, his firm has been experimenting with various types hydraulic fracturing at the Barnett Shale Oil Field, which is located in Texas. Although enormous efforts and large funds were expended, production was still very low. The petroleum engineers who began experiments with Mitchell had already lost all hope and their enthusiasm had significantly waned. directors of the company reacted very nervously to the absence of any positive results. However, Mitchell, as they say, " got under the tail", he did not want to give up his experiments. And only after almost two decades, he finally managed to find the right technology. And it was from 1998 that production at the shale oil field began to develop rapidly. dream of your whole life.

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The ancestor of shale oil and gas production was the United States, where the shale boom showed stunning results. Thus, America managed not only to reduce the price of fuel on the domestic market, but also to become an exporter of hydrocarbons, ahead of Russia in terms of the total volume of oil and gas production.

However, not many people can boast that they know how shale oil is produced and what it is, how it differs from “ordinary” oil, and whether it is a threat to “classic” hydrocarbons.

Shale oil is a hydrocarbon feedstock containing an abundance of additional impurities. Significant volumes of such oil have been found in various countries, and their extraction is capable of redrawing the world map of energy suppliers.

the Russian Federation occupies a leading position in terms of shale oil and gas reserves, which are concentrated in Western Siberia (Achimovskaya and). The United States is in second place in terms of explored oil resources. The third position in terms of shale oil reserves found belongs to China. At the same time, in China, the volume of shale gas deposits exceeds the reserves of black gold.

Shale oil production technology

Shale oil is located very deep underground and special technologies are used to extract it, which are the most promising for the development of such deposits.

Today, shale oil can be produced in two ways:
• mine - having variety of options extraction of raw materials from a well;
• open - widely used in the past. To date, it has lost its popularity due to the high cost of work.

Traditional deposits contain a small amount of hydrocarbon reserves on the planet - according to various experts, 1-3%. At the same time, low-permeability shale rocks contain large volumes of fuel. However, the development of such deposits did not work out for quite a long time. The situation changed dramatically after George Mitchell combined two well development technologies - horizontal drilling and fracking (hydraulic fracturing).

The mining technology is as follows. First of all, a vertical well is drilled until oil-bearing shale formations occur. Upon reaching the oil shale, a horizontal section of the well is formed by changing the drilling direction. After that, the download of a special liquid composition- sand in aqueous solution chemical reagents. The influent breaks the reservoir containing the oil, creating many fractures and forming a permeable reservoir. The hydraulic fracturing procedure is carried out several times, increasing the number of fractures through which hydrocarbons in the rock flow into the well. The sand in the composition prevents the closure of cracks.

Disadvantages of hydraulic fracturing technology:

• The field is rapidly aging. The average life time of wells is 1.5-2 years, during the first year of operation the debit is reduced by 80%. Then production is stopped and a new well is sought at a considerable distance from the stopped developments.
• Note the release of carbon dioxide. However, work is underway to create technologies to capture the released gas. In the future, to improve the efficiency of field development, the resulting carbon dioxide is planned to be processed into electricity.

It should be noted that the technology for the development of shale deposits is at the stage of its formation. The cost of producing shale hydrocarbons exceeds the cost of developing traditional oil fields. In this regard, in the near future, a repeat of the shale boom should not be expected, as we observed with gas, while the discovered reserves of shale black gold should be considered as reserves of energy resources for the future.

Shale oil is the energy resource of the future, everyone has heard this interpretation. Is it so? What is this alternative to traditional oil, and what are the risks of its production? We will tell.

"Shale Gold"
Oil shale reserves, from which shale oil and gas are extracted today, formed about 450 million years ago at the bottom of a prehistoric sea from mineral and organic parts (kerogen). The latter, which is also often referred to as "proto-oil", formed from the remains of plants and living organisms. From his " source material» The mineral that can be obtained as a result of the development of its deposit also depends. Thus, kerogen I and II types, consisting of the remains of protozoan algae or admixture of terrestrial and marine plants, when heated, forms liquid hydrocarbons - a resin similar in composition to petroleum hydrocarbons. They call it shale oil. And from type III, which arose from tree species of terrestrial origin, gaseous hydrocarbons are obtained - shale gas. There is an order of magnitude more oil shale than open deposits of traditional oil. According to current estimates, the total volume of shale reserves is about 650 trillion. tons, from which you can get up to 26 trillion. tons of shale oil. This is 13 times more than conventional oil reserves. At the current level of consumption, this amount will be enough for another 300 years of continuous production. But not everything is so simple. According to Shell, development is economically feasible only in the richest shale deposits, with an oil content of 90 liters per ton of shale and a reservoir thickness of at least 30 meters. Only a third of the world's reserves meet these criteria. Most of them, according to analyst G. Birg - about 70% (24.7 trillion tons of shale oil) are located in the United States. These are such large deposits as Bakken in North and South Dakota, Eagle Fort in Texas and Bone Spring in New Mexico. Their development gave rise to the general excitement of the 21st century, known as the “shale revolution”. Russia, according to Birg, occupies a solid second place - in our country about 7% of shale oil reserves. Basically, these are deposits of the Bazhenovskaya suite - deposits in Western Siberia. At the same time, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Russia's reserves are the most promising due to production conditions.

Mining
Today, shale oil is produced in two main ways. The first, which at one time was actively developed in the USSR, is the extraction of shale through a mine, and its subsequent processing in special installations-reactors, during which shale oil itself is extracted from the rock. This method is not popular among mining companies because of its high cost - the cost of a barrel of oil at the outlet is 75-90 dollars (at 2005 prices). The second way is to extract shale oil directly from the reservoir. Usually fracking or hydraulic fracturing technology is used for this. A “frac fluid” (usually either water, helium, or an acid mixed with chemicals) is pumped into a cut horizontal well, which, when high pressure destroys the shale formation, forming cracks in it, and “washes” oil from there into reservoirs that are more convenient for production. To date, this method is considered the most profitable. It is profitable at the minimum cost of oil - 50-60 dollars per barrel. But compete with traditional method oil production is still beyond his strength: neither for cheapness, nor for safety. With the current level of technology development, both methods are able to entail ecological catastrophe. In the first case, during the processing of oil shale, a huge amount of carbon dioxide CO2 is released into the atmosphere, which is fraught with an increase in the greenhouse effect, global warming, melting glaciers and ozone holes in the atmosphere. Its disposal is still unsolved riddle for scientists. In addition, the processing of shale requires huge amounts of water and produces a lot of waste - about 700 kg per two barrels of oil.

Fracking: a new environmental threat
Fracking poses even greater environmental risks. A clear indicator is the fact that in some countries (France, Romania, Bulgaria) it is simply prohibited. The main danger to the environment lies in the large amount of chemicals that are pumped underground along with water and sand to fracture the formation. The fracking operation has to be repeated in one area up to 10 times a year. During this time, hazardous substances impregnate the rock, which leads to contamination of not only the soil, but also groundwater. Therefore, in places where shale minerals are mined, a pestilence of animals, birds, fish is constantly observed, and “methane streams” are found. People who are not fortunate enough to live near the field experience frequent headaches, loss of consciousness, asthma, poisoning, and other negative health effects. However, as practice shows, water rich in oil or gas also does not add health. So the water in the areas of shale development sometimes acquires a characteristic black tint and the ability to ignite. In some regions of the United States, even their own “local” fun has appeared: setting fire to water flowing from a tap. Poisoning environment is not the only danger of fracking. Environmentalists warn that a geological rupture that disrupts the structure of the earth's crust could lead to geological shifts and major earthquakes at mining sites.

Under development
Shale oil can lead to a real revolution in the oil market and in the global economy. In case of further successful development, the issue of alternative energy and biofuels will disappear from the list of the primary tasks of mankind for another couple of hundred years. So, according to experts, shale oil has huge potential. But will it be implemented? The environmental threat is not the only reason why most countries have not yet taken on their shale reserves. Today, the technologies for their development are at the very initial stage of development. The greatest success in this area has so far been achieved only by the United States and Canada, but their methods are far from being suitable for all deposits due to geological differences. So, the “shale revolution” is not expected everywhere in the near future. Producers are also stopped by the significant high cost of production, which, taking into account current oil prices, has completely turned this business into an unprofitable one. So, on January 4, 2015, the North American company WBH Energy, specializing in the extraction of shale oil and gas, filed for bankruptcy. As Richard Lewis, an expert at Schlumberger, a large service corporation, rightly put it: “Shale plays are still at an experimental stage of development.”