—Water Stress Menaces Shale Development “” A new analysis finds that 38% of the world’s shale resources are located in areas of high to extremely high water stress or arid conditions. The report from the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research organization, combines data from the Energy Information Administration on shale formations with WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas.
by Craig Bettenhausen | September 08, 2014
—Oil shale “” The article "Oil Shale Research is Moving Forward" makes it sound too easy to recover oil from shale, as if you bore a hole and distill out the trapped "oil" (C&EN, April 24, page 29). Embedded in the shale is not oil but layers of kerogen, a vegetable gum, which, when destructively distilled, yields oil that can be refined. The struggle in the early 1980s was mining, crushing, heating, and disposing of spent shale. Early industrial hygiene observations in the 19th century and the late 20th century were that some of the derived oils are carcinogenic unless hydrogenated. Oil shale may have to surmount more barriers than were described in the story.
August 07, 2006
—Oil Shale Research Is Moving Forward “Oil from shale promises big payoff, but high costs and pollution pose hurdles” The Bush Administration is pressing ahead with plans to extract oil from vast underground beds of shale rock in the Rocky Mountains, a project that Congress hopes will eventually yield at least 800 billion barrels of recoverable crude.
by Glenn Hess | April 24, 2006
—China Backpedals On Shale Gas “Move offers breathing room for much-needed updating of regulations” In the verdant forests of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, the discovery last spring of the first commercially viable shale gas field buoyed government hopes that China will be the next big market for the trapped hydrocarbons.
by Bree Feng | January 19, 2015
Shale Gas Licenses “” Petrochemical firm Ineos has acquired an 80% stake in a shale gas exploration license in the Midland Valley of Scotland from the Aberdeen, Scotland-based firm Reach Coal Seam Gas. The license covers an area of 400 sq km. In August, Ineos acquired a 51% stake in a 329-sq-km area that is adjacent to the site it is now licensing. Ineos wants to kick off a shale gas revolution in the U.K. so that it can use ethane from the gas to supply its cracker in Grangemouth, Scotland. /articles/92/i42/Ineos-Buys-UK-Shale-Gas.html 20141020 Concentrates 92 42 /magazine/92/09242.html Ineos Buys Up U.K. Shale Gas Licenses shale gas, U.K., license con bus Alex Scott business Ineos Buys Up U.K. Shale Gas Licenses Chemical & Engineering News Ineos Buys Up U.K. Shale Gas Licenses Ineos Buys Up U.K. Shale Gas Licenses
by Alex Scott | October 20, 2014
—Braskem taps into shale “” Brazil’s largest chemical maker, Braskem, plans to spend $100 million converting 15% of its production of ethylene at its site in Camaçari, Brazil, from naphtha feedstock over to ethane. In addition to upgrades to the facility, the company has signed a contract with Enterprise Products to ship the shale-derived ethane from Morgan’s Point, Texas, to a port in Bahia, Brazil, near Braskem’s facility.
by Alexander H. Tullo | March 28, 2016
A full-scale push to explore oil shale worries critics who fear a large negative impact on the environment. Several nations have begun to evaluate and test the production potential of shale formations located in their countries. Poland, for example, has leased prospective shale acreage and, as of April, drilled 43 test wells.
by Eric Niiler | July 29, 2013
—Advisory Panel Seeks Shale Gas Regulation “” A Department of Energy advisory panel is recommending that EPA take aggressive regulatory action to control air and water pollution from shale gas production. A draft report issued on Nov. 10 by the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board Subcommittee on Shale Gas Production acknowledges the important role natural gas could play in reducing both carbon emissions and reliance on foreign sources of energy. But it says that if action is not taken to reduce the environmental impact of the expansion of shale gas production that is expected across the country—perhaps adding as many as 100,000 wells over the next several decades—there is a risk of significant air and water pollution and of a loss of public confidence, which could delay or even halt the activity.
by Glenn Hess | November 21, 2011