Numerous reports of the western mass media speak about the gas revolution, caused by an increase in the amount of natural gas produced from shale fields. Shale gas production experienced an 8 per cent growth in the recent three years in the US, which encouraged China to start increasing the share of shale gas to 25 per cent by 2030. Given the attempts to find this type of gas in Europe, Russia may lose its status of the leading gas supplier, the British "Financial Times" reports.
President of Russia's Gas community Valery Yazev is sure that reports on the revolutionary role of the new type of natural gas are exaggerated. Americans, who succeeded in becoming familiar with producing methane from the shale, plan to increase their share in the gas balance to 40 per cent by 2020. Still, there is another problem in this respect, says Valery Yazev:
"Shale gas resources can hardly be estimated, since they depend on diverse production systems. Also there is the problem of a wide range of figures. Europe, for example, claims to possess 15 trillion cubic meters of gas. It will be possible to speak about large shares in the shale gas fuel balance only in 10-15 years time. This can hardly be called a revolution, although these realties should surely be considered. The production of natural gas is falling in Europe and shale gas won't obviously replace Russian gas. This justifies the completion of the "Nord Stream" and "South Stream" pipeline projects".
According to Valery Yazev, the high cost of shale gas implies its on-site consumption, since the transportation problems make it non-competitive. And traditional gas production is unlikely to end, says another Russian expert, Director of the Energy Strategy Institute Vitaly Bushuyev:
Shale gas shouldn't be regarded as a cure-all solution. Although Europeans are diversifying their gas fields, one shouldn't consider the end of the traditional gas production era, in the context of neither the volume, nor the economy:
"At present, shale gas may be less expensive than that recovered in the Arctic, but as compared with the fuel produced in Qatar, Turkmenia and Russia, the new type seems to be a costly affair".
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