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Coal's Great 2012 Means It Could Displace Oil to Become the World's Number 1 Source of Energy

Oil remains the world's leading source of energy, providing 33.1% in 2012, but its share has fallen to its lowest level since at least 1965 and now could be displaced as the world's top energy source by coal.

http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/statistical-review-of-world-energy-2013.html.

As oil loses market share, coal gains market share and provided 29.9% of the world's global energy in 2012, its highest market share since 1970. The two most carbon intensive fuels--oil and coal--are the world's biggest sources of energy and together supply 63% of the globe's energy. One need look no further than those facts to understand why the world continues to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and why many are pessimistic about the world's ability to avoid enormous warming in the next 80 years.

Other than coal and oil, what does the world use for the rest of its energy? Natural gas provides 23.9%; hydro power 6.7%; nuclear power 4.5; and non-hydro renewable energy 2.4%.  Those fuels are zero carbon or lower carbon than coal or oil.

But in 2012, the world used more coal and oil than ever before, and coal moved toward displacing oil as the world's leading fuel.

New Duke University Study Finds Evidence That Gas Drilling In PA Has Caused Methane Pollution of Water Wells

Professor Rob Jackson and his colleague have published a new study looking carefully at methane levels and characteristics in 141 water wells in 6 counties in Northeast Pennsylvania.  The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Importantly, the study was funded by Duke University and two donors to Duke University, but neither by industry nor foundations funding its opponents.  Since Duke University has funded this research done by its professors, it’s appropriate to say this is a "Duke" study.

The study finds significant evidence that mistakes in gas drilling--either in casing or cementing--have caused stray thermo genic methane gas to contaminate some water wells.  In this respect, this study's results are consistent with the findings in 2010 of the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection that gas drilling mistakes had caused methane to contaminate 18 water wells in Dimock, Pennsylvania.

Much of the evidence for Jackson's conclusion that stray gas from mistakes in gas drilling have caused pollution of water wells stems from analysis of the methane found in water wells and high concentrations of ethane and propane, both of which are not associated with microbes or biogenic natural gas.  Jackson also finds a statistically significant correlation between the distance of a water well from gas drilling and concentrations of methane in the 141 water wells. 

Here is the Associated Press report on the Duke University study that also mentions a USGS study that found many water wells in areas where no gas drilling takes place have methane of various levels in them.

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/natural-gas-drilling-studies-find-methane-in-pennsylvania-drinking-water-1.408356.

Professor Jackson also states in the AP story that Duke University continues to find no evidence of fracking fluids in water wells.  That too has been the finding of testing done by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in 2010 and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2012.

So what to make of the Duke University and USGS studies?

First, gas drilling mistakes in cementing or casing can and have caused stray methane to migrate and contaminate some water wells. I have been saying that now repeatedly for four years! Denying this problem attacks the truth and is a disservice especially to those whose water has indeed been contaminated with methane.

Second, many water wells do have methane in them as a result of its natural presence in varying levels in some waters.  In fact, naturally occurring methane in water is relatively common in some areas, but that does not mean that mistakes in gas drilling cannot cause methane to pollute water wells. Such drilling mistakes can and do.

Third, fracking fluids are not returning from depth and contaminating water wells.

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Note: The above information has been posted to share in my educational community to enrich them with various  news feeds happening around the globe with reference to some universal oil and gas news feed web links. My in tension is not to capture contents of others illegally but to promote my blog and to share knowledge where they are unable to surf those web links which i followed.  

Shale oil, gas 'abundant' in the world, EIA(Energy information administration) says

Shale oil and gas are “abundant” around the globe, and the world has 10% more shale gas resources than the Energy Information Administration estimated just two years ago.

The new report, released Monday,

Astonishing Facts: Global Coal Consumption Booms Nearly 60% & China Consumes 47% of Total

While the USA has been dashing to natural gas and renewable energy since 2000, China has been consuming growing and huge amounts of coal.  Chinese coal demand has been so strong that the world's consumption of coal has jumped from 5.3 billion tons in 2000 to 8.1 billion tons in 2011.  Again nearly all of that growth is a result of exploding Chinese coal demand.  See table below from linked to story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-guay/the-chinese-coal-bubble_b_3355508.html

Measured anyway China's reliance on coal is astonishing. While the USA largely runs on oil and natural gas that together provide about 60% of our total energy, China is powered by coal.  Coal alone provides approximately 70% of China's total energy but just 19% of US energy. 

Indeed, Chinese coal consumption is an astonishing 47% of the entire world's consumption.
By comparison, US coal consumption is approximately 11% of the world's 8.1 billion tons.
On a per capita basis, Americans and Chinese use roughly equal amounts of coal, but China's coal usage continues to climb, while America's has been falling. 

Shale gas is a fundamental reason why coal consumption in the US has been falling but skyrocketing in China, more than doubling in 10 years.  Shale gas has boomed in the USA but not to date in China.  And I am skeptical that China's hunger for coal will diminish without natural gas to take its place.

Price Buildup of Diesel, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG

PRICE BUILD UP OF DIESEL AT DELHI RETAIL OUTLETS

Total Carbon Emissions From Natural Gas May Exceed Coal By 2016

Within the next 4 years, total carbon emissions from natural gas probably will exceed emissions from coal, but America's total carbon emissions will likely fall further as a consequence.  Here is why.

As gas displaces coal in power generation, the shale gas revolution drives down carbon emissions from coal,  increases emissions from natural gas, and cuts total US carbon emissions, because the decrease in emissions from coal are much greater than the increase from gas production.

At the start of EIA records in 1973, US carbon emissions from coal and natural gas were almost the same, with coal emitting just 29 million tons than gas.  As the nation turned to coal to make electricity, carbon emissions from coal nearly doubled and were 1 billion tons more than natural gas by 2005.
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec12_3.pdf.
Just as US carbon emissions from coal peaked in 2005, shale gas production began to zoom upward.  One result of cheap gas was that coal's carbon emissions dropped 73 million tons per year since 2007, as gas took generation market share from coal.

Another result of cheap gas and more gas usage is rising carbon emissions from natural gas, as the economy shifts from both coal and oil to natural gas. Carbon emissions from natural gas rose a total of 121 million tons since 2007 or 24 million tons per year over the five year period. 

By 2012, the spread in carbon emissions between coal and natural gas that had been 1 billion tons in 2005 was down to 300 million tons. If one assumes both that emissions from coal will decline on average 73 million tons  per year and that carbon emissions from natural gas increase by 24 million tons per year, natural gas will emit more carbon than coal by  2016.

The more than 100% increase in natural gas prices since April 2012 and the return to $4 per thousand cubic feet gas does call into question the current trend of decreasing carbon emissions from coal and increasing carbon emissions from gas will continue. Market forces in early 2013 have reversed and are moving toward coal and away from gas for generation. 

EPA's Air Toxic rule, however, takes effect in 2015 and natural gas plants meet that requirement, while old-coal fired power plants without pollution controls do not.  A mid-range estimate of coal plants that will retire, as a result of the EPA rule, is about 50,000 megawatts.

By 2015 and 2016 another big drop in carbon emissions from coal plants will occur as a result of the EPA Air Toxic rule. As those coal plants retire, natural gas generation will substantially take their place, and that combination could well mean that carbon emissions from natural gas will exceed those of coal by 2016.