Even more astounding is that by using this technique, America won't run out of natural gas for 100 years or more! Time to break out the Champagne?
Not so fast, say environmentalists. To get gas out of the ground, companies use pressurized chemicals to blow up rock. It's called hydraulic fracturing—fracking. An Oscar-nominated movie, Gasland, says that fracking contaminates our water supply with chemicals. In the movie, some homeowners set their tap water on fire.
Shell’s U.S. Shale Gas May Be Refined Into Diesel, Jet Fuel
By Eduard Gismatullin,
Bloomberg Business
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, said a $19 billion investment in Qatar may prove that abundant natural gas coaxed from shale rocks across the U.S. could be converted into diesel and jet fuel.
Shell, which is completing the world’s largest gas-to- liquids plant in Qatar, could use the technology on a smaller scale in the U.S. if capital costs can be reduced, Marvin Odum, head of Shell in the Americas, said in an interview in London. The technology uses catalysts to turn natural gas into jet fuel, diesel and other liquids.
The development of shale fields made the U.S. the world’s largest gas producer in 2009 and caused a slump in prices. Today’s price of $4.18 is equivalent to about $24 a barrel of crude. Oil is trading at about $100 a barrel in New York.
China's national deep-sea base to begin construction this year
QINGDAO, May 16 (
Xinhua) -- Construction of China's national deep-sea base is expected to begin this year in eastern Shandong Province, officials there said Monday.
Initial planning for the base has been finished and detailed construction plans are being drafted, said Liu Baohua, director of the base's administrative center.
The construction work will start after the State Ocean Administration (SOA) approves the construction plans, said Liu.
