Shale gas and oil is a natural gas found beneath the earth’s surface trapped within shale formation and contains methane gas, ethane and propane. Shale gas is a large source of domestic energy in the US. Shale gas was first extracted in Fredonia, New York in a shallow low pressure fractures. In the decade of 1930’s first horizontal drilling was done and after that in 1947 a well was hydraulic fractured in the US. In the areas surrounding Chicago, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio shale gas from 5.4tcf (Trillion cubic feet) to 8.9tcf (Trillion cubic feet) was extracted in the years 1998 and 2007, respectively.
The South African continent has a major sedimentary basin, karoo basin, which contains thick organic rich shale. The karoo is estimated to have technically recoverable resources of 485 trillion cubic feet of gas. Several companies intended to explore for shale gas by using fracturing in the Karoo region.The US Energy Information Administration in 2011 estimated that Argentina holds 774 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas reserve, third largest in the world.
Largest reserve is available in Vaca Muerta oil field of tight oil and gas. In Mexico the recoverable shale gas is 681 trillion cubic feet, fourth largest shale gas reserve in the world as per the report of US Energy Information Administration. Saudi Arabia minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Ali Naimi, gave an estimate in March 2013 that Saudi Arabia has 600 trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas reserves more than the double of conventional reserves. The recoverable shale gas in India is around 500-2000 trillion cubic meters. The main basin in India is Cambay basin in Gujarat, Assam-Arakan basin in northeast India and the Gondwana basin in Central India. Moreover, China has set the target of producing shale gas of 30 billion cubic meters a year to his companies, almost half of the China’s consumption in 2008. US President Barack Obama in November 2009 inked a deal to share US gas- shale technology with China.
With such a huge reserves of shale gas in several parts of the world the market for shale oil and gas is set to grow exponentially and this report analyzes the shale oil & gas market at a global level, technologies employed in extraction process, and the opportunities are thoroghly analyzed region wise.
