No 214 NATURAL GAS RESERVES

By Thanh Thien Nguyen


IN MY OPINION, economics and environment is quite interesting. It is familiar to our lives and many people care about the environment they are living in. In this article, I will talk about a recent issue which is related to energy.

According to the Economist: demand for natural gas has increased .Gas can be used for many purposes: transportation, power generation (such as gas turbine is used to generate electricity), domestic use (cooking and heating), fertilizers, or aviation …. However, there may not be enough supply in industry.

To solve this problem, some countries have started a new invention which can be substituted for natural gas. That is unconventional gas which occupies 45% of the world’s gas. They are shale gas, tight gas and coal-bed methane. The unconventional gas helps full fill the gap of the conventional one which can not be supplied as quickly as needed. It can be found in China, America or other gas- importing countries while Russia and the Middle East have the largest stock of conventional gas. As can be seen from the graph, China had the largest reserve for renewable gas. Russia had the highest rate but mainly was conventional gas.

 One of the advantages of making this new kind of gas is that it creates new jobs and hence reduces the unemployment rate. It can be a substitute for coal which releases large amount of pollution when being used.

The diagram above shows the increasing demand for gas in the next 30 years in different regions and types of natural gas. Gas has lower emissions. However, green energy sources still need to be improved.

There is also fear that the resources of unconventional gas will run out and the process of extracting them can pollute the environment (as chemicals are needed). Moreover, there is negative health impact for people and cattle living near gas exploration areas (chemicals released, methane contaminates water, and some think the process could lead to earthquakes)

(according to  CNN). The cost of producing is considered higher than the one of natural gas. France and Bulgaria have banned producing for environmental reasons. Greens in America and Australia are also rallying against the industry. The clip below is Australian news which shows the influence of unconventional gas on the health effect.