Last night I enjoyed the spectacle of a shale gas public relations car crash in the charming West Sussex village of Balcombe. Last year shale oil and gas firm Cuadrilla Resources obtained a license to commence exploratory drilling at Lower Stumble, 1 mile south of the village. Since then, a hardcover surface has been prepared, … Continue reading
Shale gas has been called a game changer in the US but Europe will have a tough job emulating the US’ success, writes Tim Probert. This article first appeared in the December issue of The Energy Industry Times. There is no question that shale gas has been a ‘game-changer’ in the United States. From virtually … Continue reading
Cuadrilla Resources, Britain’s first shale gas exploration license holder, claims a 500 square mile area around Blackpool, Preston and Southport contains enough methane to meet national gas demand for at least 50 years and create thousands of jobs. Proponents say Cuadrilla’s resource is revolutionary, opponents say shale gas is unnecessary. Who’s right? Tim Probert digs … Continue reading
Swedish power utility Vattenfall has abandoned a planned 500 MW carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at Jaenschwalde, Germany, expected to cost €1.5 billion, after the German federal government rejected a bill allowing underground carbon storage. The 500 MW CCS demonstration project was to utilize a new 250 MW Oxyfuel boiler and see another 250 MW … Continue reading
Namibia will tender in January a $1 billion, 800 MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant project as part of a novel gas-to-power project which will be the southern African nation’s largest ever engineering project, according to head of state utility NamPower. The integrated $2 billion gas-to-power Kudu project, equivalent to 15 per cent of … Continue reading
The British Geological Survey (BGS) is working on a new estimate of the amount of shale gas in Lancashire’s Bowland Basin after suggesting Cuadrilla Resources’ figure of 200 trillion cubic feet (tcf) – enough to meet national natural gas demand for 56 years – could be flawed. Head of energy Mike Stephenson said it is … Continue reading
As part of researching a forthcoming Gas Turbine World article about retrofitting CCS for gas-fired power plants, last night I attended a ‘Green in the City’ panel discussion put on by EcoConnect to discuss the future of carbon capture technology. Attendees would be forgiven for thinking carbon capture has no future. There is no shortage … Continue reading
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) response towards recent domestic shale gas developments has been notably reserved and avoids the partisan hyperbole of environmentalists and oil & gas industry players alike. Why? Isn’t shale gas the best thing since sliced bread? In case you hadn’t heard, Cuadrilla Resources, a joint venture between Australian … Continue reading
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) warned the first company to explore for shale gas in the UK that its operations in the vast Bowland basin near Blackpool will be shut down permanently if methods to mitigate earthquakes from hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, fail. Cuadrilla Resources, a joint venture between Australian drilling … Continue reading
GE has announced a press conference for 11am CET tomorrow (Tuesday) to launch its new structure for the German market, GE Deutschland. A GE blog states the media will be informed about the new structure and its planned investments, goals and projects at its research centre in Garching near Munich. Millicent Media understands the new unit … Continue reading
