Argentine government pins hopes on mining and energy

Significance The rebound related to higher world prices, growing global and domestic demand, more efficient operations at the Vaca Muerta shale oil field and new natural gas subsidies. These industries still have considerable development potential, which the government hopes to foster given their role as a source of regional employment and export dollars. Impacts High global prices and post-pandemic rebound will boost production and exports, notably of lithium, copper and unconventional hydrocarbons. Natural resources will attract new green energy projects, especially in connection with photovoltaic and wind energy. Environmental protests over extractive projects will persist.

Unconventional hydrocarbon resources: geological statistics, petrophysical characterization, and field development strategies

Hydrocarbons exist in abundant quantity beneath the earth's surface. These hydrocarbons are generally classified as conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons depending upon their nature, geology, and exploitation procedure. Since the conventional hydrocarbons are under the depletion phase, the unconventional hydrocarbons have been a major candidate for current and future hydrocarbon production. Additionally, investment and research have increased significantly for its exploitation. Having the shift toward unconventional hydrocarbons, this study reviews in depth the technical aspects of unconventional hydrocarbons. This review brings together all the important aspects of unconventional reservoirs in single literature. This review at first highlights the worldwide unconventional hydrocarbon resources, their technical concept, distribution, and future supplies. A portion of this study also discusses the resources of progressive unconventional hydrocarbon candidates. Apart from this, this review also highlights the geological aspects of different unconventional hydrocarbon resources including tight, shale, and coalbed methane. The petrophysical behavior of such assists including the response to well logs and the discussion of improved correlation for petrophysical analysis is a significant part of this detailed study. The variation in geology and petrophysics of unconventional resources with conventional resources are also presented. In addition, the latest technologies for producing unconventional hydrocarbons ranging from fractured wells to different fluid injections are discussed in this study. In the end, the latest machine learning and optimization techniques have been discussed that aids in the optimized field development planning of unconventional reservoirs.

The Legal Governance of Oil and Gas in Europe: An Indicator Analysis of the Implementation of the Hydrocarbons Directive

Hydrocarbons are traditional subjects to European Union (EU) law (“acquis communitaire”). A short historical review reveals that quasi all aspects of upstream and downstream segments are covered by the legislation. The results of applied information extraction and elaborated quantitative analysis indicate that the intensity of legislation making correlates with global drivers such as oil price booms, and technology developments such as extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons by hydraulic fracturing. A quarter of a century after the Hydrocarbons Directive was published and transposed by Member States (MS), data allow us to make a semi-quantitative assessment on the implementation, the major drivers of governments’ publication activity, and the impact on the oil and gas production. Another specific relevance of this study is on non-energy minerals management of the EU, whether the introduction of similar competitive bidding rules would induce a greater interest of investors, and the enhanced competition could bring more benefits to the states by the rejuvenation of the critical minerals extractive sector. The preliminary findings show that in some MS there is a positive correlation between the concession call publication activity and hydrocarbons production. To confirm these conclusions the analysis of an extended dataset including exploration data, investments, and social impacts is needed in order to screen the effect of global market trends, the exhaustion of domestic geological reserves, and the different policy environments.

China’s Unconventional Challenge Spurs New Thinking on Shale and Tight Reservoirs

Despite possessing some of the world’s largest shale-gas resources, China is likely in 2020 to have produced less than half of the 30 Bcm per year in shale gas that the government set as a goal in its latest Five-Year Plan. While such a small volume may make shale production seem inconsequential to China’s overall energy balance, it is clear that when it comes to developing unconventional hydrocarbons, China is playing a long game. With regard to shale alone, a 2013 US Energy Information Administration study noted that China has the world’s second-largest technically recoverable shale-gas resources at an estimated 1,115 Tcf; the US is first with 1,161 Tcf. Even more to the point, China is one of only four countries (including the US, Canada, and Argentina) that produce commercial volumes of both shale gas and of tight oil. But it is the lack of efficient technologies and infrastructure that stand in the way of China besting the US and creating its own “shale revolution.” China’s most attractive reserves occur in remote, mountainous areas where, in some cases, shale resources can lie as deep as 3500 m. In separate papers presented in October during the 2020 SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference, the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) detailed new technologies it is applying to meet some of these challenges. Paper SPE 202066, coauthored by subsidiaries of CNPC, Downhole Service Company and CCDC Petroleum Drilling & Technology Company Ltd., details the application of enhanced-hydraulic- fracturing technology (EHFT) to raise the effective stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) in the Sichuan shale basin. A second paper (SPE 202062), coauthored by CNPC and Halliburton, offers a case study in tight-oil production in Daqing employing an intensive fracture-cluster-completion strategy using a microemulsion flowback technology. The Spice in Sichuan Shale China boasts three shale basins (Sichuan, Tarim, and Yantze), but its principal development focus is in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which holds half of the country’s shale reserves. In developing fields such as Weiyuan, Changning, and Jiaoshiba, producers target the Ordovician Wufeng-Silurian Longmaxi formation. The total proved geological reserves of these three gas fields exceeds 500 Bcm, the authors noted in their paper. To develop infrastructure supporting industrial-scale operations and to introduce and test new technologies to raise shale output, China has established several national pilot demonstration areas. One of those is the Weiyuan national shale demonstration area in south Sichuan, where the authors quote an annual production of 2.5 Bcm. Staged horizontal fracturing is the main technology used at Weiyuan and other Chinese shale fields as producers strive to expand the fracture extension area, increase the reconstruction volume, and improve the productivity of single wells. An analysis of production data from Weiyuan showed, however, that the long-term conductivity of fractures is limited because the length and height of supporting fractures are short. Thus, because of the limited volume of reconstruction, production decreases rapidly and efficiency suffers as pressure declines.

Argentina energy doubts mount as Vaca Muerta stalls

Significance On December 15, President Alberto Fernandez's government awarded supply contracts under the Gas.Ar plan, seeking to address short-term supply challenges and energy trade balance concerns. The government’s initial plan to prioritise development of the Vaca Muerta unconventional hydrocarbons reserves appears to have been shelved. Impacts The shift in priority from renewable energy to hydrocarbons development may prove to be misguided. Vaca Muerta may be overtaken by the global focus on renewable energy and climate concerns. Shifting economic and trade policies and renewed tariff freezes risk deterring investment in the hydrocarbons sector. The cost of subsidies may prove unsustainable amid fiscal constraints and competing spending priorities.

Problems of unconventional hydrocarbons sources on the example of the domanikites of the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province

The first industrial oil in the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province was obtained in 1929. By now more than 230 hydrocarbon deposits have been explored in the Province. A significant part of these deposits is under development. At the same time, the originally explored total resources have been developed in terms of oil only by 50%, in terms of gas - by about 30%. The remaining unexplored part of the initial total resources is forecast to be located in difficult unconventional bedding conditions, in particular, in the domaniсites of the Upper Devonian period. The so-called shale oil and gas are associated with them. The forecasting, exploration, and development of oil and gas deposits in the domaniсites require new methodological and technological solutions. The article discusses the problems of unconventional hydrocarbon development using the example of the domaniсites of the Timan-Pechora oil and gas Province.

Shale gas in South America. From the United States’ Energy Security to the promises of a regional boom

Even though oil continues leading energy discussions worldwide the share of natural gas in total energy is expected to equal that of oil by 2030. The United States (US) has played a key role in that transition: in the last two decades a qualitative technological leap forward has driven this country to an energy revival through the exploration and production of unconventional gas and oil.Since its independence Latin America has been considered theUnited States‘ backyard with notorious emphasis in Central American andCaribbeancountries. However, the increasing energy potential that others Latin American countries like Argentina and Brazil have turned to posses in the unconventional hydrocarbons industry have led to a renewed interest in the region beyond its traditional partners. The aim of this paper is to explore what could be the interest for theUSin shale developments inSouth America; which are the countries with more potential in developing shale gas industries based on their reserves and above ground factors; and which is the current state of the foreseen South American shale revolution.