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US Report: Romania has shale gas reserves equivalent to the consumption on 100 years
Romania has reserves of shale gas of 1,444 billion cubic metres, estimates the American Administration for information in the domain of energy (EIA) as the reserves of gas are placed at 113 billion cubic metres and the annual consumption is approximately 14 billion cubic metres, Mediafax says.
Romania consumes annually approximately 14 billion cubic metres of gas,quantity ensured 80% by the domestic production. The difference is imported from Russia, through go-betweens, at high prices.
Thus, the American governmental agency estimates that Romania has gas reserves of shale tehnically recoverable ( undiscovered which could be accessed with the existing technology)of 51,000 billion cubic feet, namely 1,444 billion cubic metres. According to EIA, the reserves of natural gas of Romania were estimated at the beginning of this year at 4,000 billion cubic feet, the equivalent of 113 billion cubic metres.
Romania is placed third in the EU regarding the shale gas reserves after Poland ( 4,190 billion cubic metres) and France ( 3,879 billion cubic metres) according to the EIA report.
As regards the oil caught under the shale rock in Romania, EIA estimates a volume of 300 million barrels as compared to the reserves estimated at 600 million barrels from other kinds of ores.
According to the estimates of the American institution, the exploitation of shale would increase by 50% the oil reserves of Romania and over 10 times the gas reserves.
In Europe, excluding Russia and Ukraine, the undiscovered reserves of shale gas are estimated by EIA at a total of 13,308 billion cubic metres, over 3 times more than the reserves proved and estimated at 4,105 cubic metres.
After Poland, France and Romania, in the top of shale gas reserves in Europe is Denmark ( 906 billion cubic metres) the UK and the Netherlands ( 736 billion cubic metres each), Bulgaria and Germany ( 481 billion cubic metres each), Sweden ( 283 billion cubic metres) and Spain ( 226 billion cubic metres).
Russia has substantial shale gas reserves, estimated at 8,126 billion cubic metres, volume several times smaller than the conventional reserves of the country.
Ukraine has shale gas reserves estimated at 3,624 cubic metres, according to the report.
The report showed that approximately 10% of the global reserves of oil and approximately a third of the natural gas reserves are found in ores situated under shale rock, in the United States and other 41 countries the exploitation of these deposits is in its initial phase.
The US has the biggest shale gas reserves in the world, followed by China, Argentina, Algeria, Canada and Mexico. As regards the oil in the shale ores,the United States is followed by Russia, China, Argentina and Lybia.
In Romania, the American group Chevron owns several exploitation licences of the shale gas ores, in Vaslui and Dobrogea.
Chevron intents to start in the second half of this year the drilling of a exploitation mill for shale gas in Vaslui and will start seismic studies for the three areas in Constanta.
The industry of shale gas is contested by environment activists, who consider that accessing the ores, difficult to access than the traditional ores of natural gas may contaminate the waters with chemical substances.
The US has become the biggest producer of natural gas in the world and assured the energy security by the exploitation of the shale gas, in a technical process considered dangerous for the environment.