Energy Delta Convention

Verschillende ECN’ers leverden een bijdrage aan de Energy Delta Convention, die in november gehouden werd in Groningen. De jaarlijkse conventie is bedoeld als platform voor energie-experts om ervaringen en inzichten uit te wisselen en wordt georganiseerd door de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen en het publiek-private netwerk Energy Valley.

• Luc Rabou was voorzitter van een sessie met als titel Unconventional gas: promise or economic bubble. Lees hieronder het verslag.
• Jeroen de Joode sprak tijdens een sessie over een European perspective on gas qualities. Bekijk zijn presentatie.
• Paul van den Oosterkamp sprak over de Role of biomass in Renewable Energy Sources and GHG GreenHouse Gas emission reduction targets. Bekijk zijn presentatie.
• Jaap Kiel sprak over de Prospects of torrefaction to optimize bioenergy value chains. Bekijk zijn presentatie.

Verslag: Unconventional gas: promise or economic bubble?

Prof. Rien Herber (RUG) explained how unconventional gas is extracted. Very many wells per field are needed. It makes the business case completely different from the conventional one. Uncertainties are larger, but investments can be spread over longer periods and cut off when profits fail to realize. The return on (cash and energy) investment is rather low.

Prof. Herber called the huge reserves mentioned in the EBN report a hype. Accessible reserves are far smaller than the Slochteren field. Even reaching only 10% of the present Dutch natural gas production level will require a major effort.

Dr. Ivan Pearson, who works for the EU on energy security issues, explained how the 2009 disruption of the Russian gas supply heightened European interest in unconventional gas. Reserves of unconventional gas are widely distributed, not limited to a few countries as conventional natural gas. However, according to Dr. Pearson, all reports on unconventional gas reserves are derived from a single study, which casts doubts on their reliability.

The recent fast increase in US production of unconventional gas reduced the US demand for LNG. As a result, large amounts of LNG became available to Europe. LNG import more than doubled in three years time. Spot prices of gas and oil diverged and customers wanted to renegotiate contracts with oil-indexed gas prices. The Fukushima disaster again changed the picture.