Who Opposes Natural Gas Production?

A while ago I my mention of opposition to natural gas production was met with some skepticism and I’d like to take a little time to substantiate my claim. Several weeks ago Japanese scientists announced that they’d successfully extracted methane from “fire ice”:

Japan says it has successfully extracted natural gas from frozen methane hydrate off its central coast, in a world first.

Methane hydrates, or clathrates, are a type of frozen “cage” of molecules of methane and water.

The gas field is about 50km away from Japan’s main island, in the Nankai Trough.

Researchers say it could provide an alternative energy source for Japan which imports all its energy needs.

To clarify, that’s just another method of natural gas extraaction. Not every one was overjoyed at the news:

The complete folly of our current energy path was once again laid bare yesterday with the news from Japan that the state-owned oil and gas company JOGMEC had successfully drilled under the seabed into deposits of methane hydrate.

Methane hydrates are ice-like solids, a crystalline mix of frozen methane and water. They are sometimes known as flammable ice.

There are vast swathes of methane hydrates buried beneath the Arctic tundra – and there are also huge deposits to be found offshore in depths of 200 to 500 metres.

The US Geological Survey argues that methane hydrates offer an “immense carbon reservoir”, twice all other known fossil fuels on earth. That is potentially one huge amount of carbon that could be burnt or released into the atmosphere.

For anyone worried about climate change, the exploitation of methane hydrates is potentially disastrous news. For decades climate scientists have warned of the dangers of how a melting Arctic could lead to climate chaos, by releasing vast tonnes of methane – a potent greenhouse gas.

One component of theory of catastrophic global warming involves methane hydrates AKA “methane clathrates” in the “clathrate gun hypothesis“. Under this scenario global warming would induce the release of vast quantities of methane presently bound up as “fire ice”. The increased amounts in the atmosphere would in turn produce more global warming.

Those who are opposed to developing natural gas production are taking the position that any increased use of fossil fuels is bad, as mentioned in my previous post.

5 comments… add one
  • sam Link

    One theory of the Permian disaster implicates the massive release methane via methane hydrate gasification. See, Permian–Triassic extinction event/Methane hydrate gasification.

  • Icepick Link

    I’m a little familiar with that theory of the Permian Extinction. Enough so that the idea of exploiting large quantities of methane hydrates worries me.

  • sam Link

    Yeah, the stuff is potentially quite dangerous, environmentally. Here’s a pretty good summary of the dangers of mining undersea methane hydrates by a company that plans to harvest tundra methane instead (itself a risky undertaking): Methane Hydrate. (Scroll down to the “Risks and Solutions” section.)

  • Drew Link

    Let’s stipulate that global warming is real. Let’s also stipulate that China and India etc have bigger objectives in mind than contemplating their navels about AGW and will not participate in carbon reduction efforts. Let us also observe that natural gas burning leaves a smaller CO2 footprint than coal burning.

    What are your options? Well, the obvious is nuclear power. Isn’t it delicious irony that the enviro-nuts and government have made the best option vis-a-vis burning fossil fuels basically untenable. Heh. If you were a cynic you might believe their goal wasn’t really the environment. But I digress…

    You could dismantle your society, and become servants to China. You could tap geothermal, water, solar and wind power………and barely scratch the surface of your needs.

    Or maybe you could get your head out of your ass and start thinking like an engineer, and not an ivory tower scientist or anti-capitalist. Which brings me to the subject of this blogpost.

    Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. I forget, perhaps many multiples. Call me crazy, but if I’m worried about global warming and potential catastrophic methane releases I’d get off my stupid politically and tax motivated ass and tap that methane, burn it to CO2 , and take the greenhouse gas arbitrage.

    And Dave has mentioned at times what might be the mother of all scrubbers of CO2. Well, pump it down holes, like old oil wells, coal mines or replace the methane stores. As I recall that’s the concern with methane mining. Better get started, because that kind of engineering doesn’t happen over night.

    But that would require an engineering mindset, not a politically motivated tax and spend mindset……

    Signing off from sunny and windy Naples, your friendly engineer turned investor.

  • Drew Link

    Heh. Just saw the previous blogpost.

    I’m Jumpin’ Jack Flash and I say gas, gas, gas………

    Actually, I say nuclear. But after awhile your head gets a big bump from beating against the wall.

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