Geoloog David Hughes over de situatie in Canada
30 januari 2007. Bijdrage geleverd door Rembrandt Koppelaar.
Als het gaat om de uitputting van aardolie & aardgas wordt er nauwelijks nagedacht over de regionale context. Veel landen hebben te maken met dalende productie van aardgas en/of aardolie, wat grote economische gevolgen heeft voor die landen afzonderlijk en de omringende importerende landen. David Hughes, Geoloog werkzaam bij Natural Resources Canada vertelt in een interview met GlobalPublicMedia over de dalende aardgasproductie in Canada, de opkomst van de teerzanden en de politieke consequenties voor o.a. de Verenigde Staten:
“In 1990, Canada had a gas production probably of around 14 Bcf a day, and we had an overall decline rate of about 13%. So, if you didn’t drill a well, gas production would drop by 13%. Going forward to 2004, the overall decline rate on a slightly higher production is now 20%. In 1996, we drilled 4,000 successful gas wells. The price of gas spiked in 2001 – we drilled 11,000 gas wells. We’ve had about a 10% increase in productivity by drilling three times as many wells. 2003: even though we drilled 14,000 wells, gas production fell by about 3%. So, it basically hit a peak in 2001, maintained that plateau till mid-2002, declined 3% in 2003. We’re now drilling nearly 16,000 gas wells per year, as of 2005, and production is about what it was back in 2002. Companies are talking about trimming their exploration budgets, which will play out as steeper declines in productivity. So, the writing’s on the wall. We have to drill more and more wells each year – hopefully to stay flat – but, eventually, even to hold declines, to relatively small, incremental levels.“
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