Riemann's Contribution to Flight and Laser Fusion

Inside EnergyNatural Gas:Our Barely TappedEnergy Resourceby William EngdahlNatural gas is potentially one ofthe world's most valuable primaryenergy resources, even thoughhistorically, it has been treated as a"poor cousin" to crude oil.Its actual supply and attractivenesshave yet to be realized. In fact, untilthe 1973 OPEC oil embargo, U.S. naturalgas was regarded largely as anobstruction in the search for oil. However,natural gas, or methane, is oneof the few primary energy sourcesthat represents useful energy in itsnatural form. (Oil must be refined,uranium converted into thermal energy,coal into heat, and so forth). Forthis reason, it is the fuel preferred byindustry and other end-users when itis available.Despite natural gas's extreme attractiveness,political pricing restrictionsin effect since the 1950s havesuccessfully kept one of the world'smost useful and abundant energy resourcesfrom its logical development.The subordination of this particularhydrocarbon by both the multinationaloil majors and parochial coalinterests is a fascinating story.Today, because of the Natural GasPolicy Act of 1978—an almost accidentalproduct of the Carter era ofenergy policy chaos—natural gasdrilling has begun to increase significantly,especially in uncontrolled,deep (below 15,000 feet) formations,where the high exploration costs andrisks are somewhat offset by the abilityto command upwards of $8 per1,000 cubic feet of gas. Yet, the vastpotential of U.S. natural gas reservesis still largely untapped.A comprehensive report recentlyreleased by Dr. Wolf Haefele statesthat we have consumed less than "8percent of the estimated global resources[of natural gas] with a goodpart of this being burned away wastefullyin the major gas-producing regionsof northern Africa and the PersianGulf because there have been nomeans for transporting the gas to distantmarkets such as those in WesternEurope." 1The Haefele report, which sees naturalgas emerging as a major energysource over the next decades, estimatesglobal conventional gas resourcesat some 9889.6 trillion cubicfeet (tcf). For comparison, total U.S.natural gas consumption runs about20 tcf/year.In the United States alone, reservesare equally impressive. In a speechlast spring, Harry C. Kent, director ofthe Potential Gas Agency at the ColoradoSchool of Mines, announcedupdated resource estimates based onthe recent exploration and discoveriesin the Rocky Mountains and otherregions. 2 Kent's committee now calculatesthat Alaska contains some 276tcf of undiscovered recoverable conventionalnatural gas, ah amount thatcould fill current U.S. demand almostto the end of the century. If we addthe committee's estimate for thelower 48 states, we have an estimated820 tcf, more than a 40-year supply.A new administration and changedattitude in Washington offer somepromise that this resource will becomeincreasingly important, if deliberaterestrictions on its end-use areremoved or mitigated. Untangling thecomplexities of the entire Natural GasPolicy Act is a topic for another column,however. Suffice it to say thatnatural gas policy has too long layhidden under the shadow of othercarbon-based energy sources.Notes1. Wolf Haefele, et al., Energy in a Finite World:Paths to a Sustainable Future. Report by theEnergy Systems Group of the Int'l. Institutefor Applied Systems Analysis, (Cambridge,Mass.: Ballinger, 1981).2. Hatty C. Kent, "The Outlook for RemainingU.S. Gas Reserves Based on Recent Explorationand Development Activity." Speech tothe Eighth Energy Technology Conference,Washington, D.C., March 11, 1981.One recent authoritative report estimates that the United States has enoughuntapped natural gas to fill current U.S. demand for more than 40 years.Inside Energy October-November 1981 FUSION 51