Is the Shale Revolution just hype Discuss with reference to two examples - Essay Example

However, the migration is sometimes blocked by rock barriers and the hydrocarbons accumulate underneath such cap, eventually turning into a conventional gas reservoir (Curtis, 2002). Such hydrocarbons which stay in the source rock make up shale gas or shale oil. Such gas is usually trapped underneath the surface, close to 1500 to 3000 metres in the source rock where the hydrocarbons have originally formed (Curtis, 2002). This makes shale gas or shale oil very much difficult to extract. Shale gas is considered unconventional gas because it is said to come from accumulation with significant spatial aspects and vaguely indicated boundaries independent of the water column (Stevens, 2012).

Conventional gas is usually drilled with the gas flowing at voluminous rates. For the unconventional gas, drilling is not sufficient to support commercial distribution. Other processes are needed in order to support commercial flow. Primary technologies needed for shale gas include horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing with the water, sand, as well as chemicals incorporated into the horizontal borehole at high pressure to break the shale rocks and then discharge the gas (Stevens, 2012).

Both technologies are not new technologies, as horizontal drilling has been applied in the 1930s and fracking has first been seen in the US in 1947. The popular use of shale gas is said to have created a revolution as shifts in shale gas use, especially in the US has been seen. However, other scholars and observers are doubtful of the existence and persistence of such a phenomenon or a revolution. This paper shall discuss whether or not the shale gas revolution is just hype or whether it is reality.

Various examples shall be used in order to support specific arguments for this paper. Shale gas increased to about 20%, from 1% in 2000 of the domestic gas production in the US by 2010 (Stevens, 2010). The Energy Information