Carbon 6.5 Flashcards
Energy pathways
- the route by which energy is transferred from the production area to the consumption area.
- There is a mismatch between supply and demand across the world. Black is production and red is consumption.
- This means that energy pathways have been established in order to trade the energy supplies between countries
How is energy transferred from production area to consumption area?
- Pipelines
- Large ships
Physical threats to the main energy pathways
- Terrain/topography – mountainous increases difficulty in construction
- Construction and maintenance in vast remote areas (Siberia)
- Climate and permafrost disruption - pipelines must be above ground and insulated to ensure permafrost is not melted and creates land subsidence
- Extraction from deep sea is challenging (Gulf of Mexico – Hurricane season)
- Physical ‘chokepoints’ (a narrow sea channel) can be blocked over half the world’s oil travel’s through 8 major choke points
- Natural hazards – tectonically active area
Human threats to the main energy pathways
- Maintaining and fixing the pipelines
- Technical problems like pipeline leaks – must be organised and monitored
- Supplies diverted for greater profit (to china) or for political reasons
- Political tension and conflict can lead to disruption in supply (Iraq wars in 1990)
- Piracy at chokepoints - the Straits of Malacca in Indonesia – in 2015, criminal gangs frequently seized ships for hostage payments
Case study - Russia to Europe
Facts about Russian’s gas and oil
- Russia is the world’s second largest producer of gas
- It also imports a significant amount of gas, presumably to help it meets its own needs
- Most of its gas exports go to Europe via a network of pipelines
Case study - Russia to Europe
How many pipelines are there from Russia to Europe?
- There are 4 pipelines
- 3 of these pipelines cross Ukraine – there is Russian military action here
Case study - Russia to Europe
What is the tension with Russia’s pipeline?
- 3 of the 4 pipelines going into Europe go through Ukraine
- Therefore, Ukraine is in a position to make life difficult for the Russian gas industry
- E.g., threatening to increase the price it charges for allowing the transfer of gas across its territory. They could also just stop the flows
- Tension is rising due to Ukraine possibly joining the EU and become a member of NATO – this why there are many conflicts
Case study - Russia to Europe
What is the risk of Europe over relying on Russia for energy?
- There have been strained political relations between Russia and Western Europe
- Heavy reliance carries the potential risk of being involved in various forms of political and economic blackmail
- Although the UK still obtains most its gas from Qatar, in 2015 it doubled its imports from Russia to 29.1bn cubic metres
Case study - Russia to Europe
Why is the UK doubling its imports from Russia?
-It is doing this to offset the declining output from the UK’s North Sea gas fields
Case study - Russia to Europe
Northern Lights and Yamal Europe
- These are two major systems that deliver Russian gas to Eastern Europe
- Poland depends on this and lacks good alternatives
Case study - Russia to Europe
Brotherhood
- The Soyuz and Brotherhood pipelines are Gazprom’s major export routes for delivering gas to Europe through Ukraine
- Gazprom is seeking alternative routes to avoid going through Ukraine
Case study - Russia to Europe
Why did Russia cut off Ukraine’s gas in 2014?
- Russia claimed that Ukraine were failing to pay off its debts (£3.3bn)
- 2006 – it cut off supplies due to price disputes which led to gas shortages in Eastern Europe
- This could have affected the rest of Europe and leave households with no energy
- Ukraine suggested that it was about politics – how Ukraine were supposed to make a free trade deal with Ukraine, this would bring cheap EU goods to flood into Russia
What can blocking a chokepoint do?
- It can lead to substantial increases in total energy costs and world energy prices
- Disruptions to these routes can affect oil prices and add thousands of miles of transit in alternative routes
- Chokepoints also leave oil tankers vulnerable to theft from pirates, terrorist attacks, shipping accidents leading to disastrous spills and political unrest
What are the most important chokepoints?
- The strait Malacca linking the Indian and the Pacific Ocean
- These are the most strategic chokepoints measured by volume of oil transit
Why are chokepoints so important?
- Over half of the world’s oil goes through these checkpoints
- 20% of oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz
What factors can impact energy security?
- Natural hazards
- Political conflict
- Piracy
- Military action
Example of Piracy impacting energy security:
- December 2015
- The International Maritime Bureau reported piracy attacks along the strait of Malacca between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia
What do Pirates do to impact energy security?
- Criminal gangs frequently seized ships for hostage payments
- Over 500 attacks occurred from 2009-2015
What happened to the Trans Forcados, Efurun-Otor and Escravos pipelines in Nigeria?
- They were bombed in 2016 by militants
- This resulted in a loss of 300,000 barrels of crude oil a day
How has the UK’s energy security been impacted by external factors?
- During a stormy winter in 2013
- UK gas reserves fell to 6 hours’ worth as the storm damage paralysed an import pipeline
Case study - the Syrian conflict
Who are the superpowers and their allies involved with this conflict?
- Russia with Shia (non-fundamentalist allies)
- USA with Sunni (fundamentalist allies)
Case study - the Syrian conflict
Why is Russia involved?
- Russia is the world’s largest exporter for oil and gas
- Iran wants a share of the European market and is an ally of Russia
- With Iran’s support, Russia has control over European energy while strengthening a non-fundamentalist bloc between Asia and the Middle East
- Iran wants to export its gas via pipelines through Syria
- This explains why it defends the Syrian government
Case study - the Syrian conflict
Which other countries seek to be Europe’s main supplier?
- Sunni
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- All would need a pipeline through Syria
Case study - the Syrian conflict
Why is USA involved?
- Qatar and Saudi Arabia are US allies, which explains why the USA and its allies are happy for Al Qaeda to conquer a strip through Syria over which US companies would build pipelines
- This would allow other us companies such as Exxon to market Middle Eastern oil and gas in Europe
Deepwater spills examples
- 2010 – the disastrous explosion of BP’s rig in the Gulf of Mexico that caused an environmental catastrophe
- This killed 11 workers and spewed 4m barrels of petrol in to the ocean for 87 days
- This devastated marine life and polluted 1,300 miles of shoreline
- Thousands were put out of work in oil, fisheries and tourism
What is peak oil?
The global peak in production of oil before decline
Do we know when peak oil will be reached?
For a long time, this was thought to be close but recently, countries such as USA and Canada have started to exploit unconventional fossil fuels to increase their security.
What are the main types of UFF?
- Tar/oil sands
- Oil shale
- Shale gas
- Natural gas
- Deep water oil
What makes them unconventional?
They are not extracted in the same simple ways as conventional fuels and their extraction is more costly, uses more energy and is more environmentally damaging
Why are unconventional fossil fuels being exploited now?
These are becoming more economical as oil prices increased until OPEC flooded the market and reduced global oil prices to out compete.
Why are unconventional fossil fuels being exploited now?
The development of these is also controversial as it reduces the need to develop renewable energy further.
Deep water oil
- As accessible reserves run out, prospecting companies have to look into deeper ocean waters with greater risks and costs
- North Sea oil is an example of an accessible reserve that is running out
- The Gulf of Mexico and Brazil’s offshore reserves
Tar Sands/oil sands
- Oil sands
- Bituminous sands
- Extra heavy oil
- These are naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, water and a dense viscous form of petroleum called bitumen
- Canada has 73% of known global stocks
Shale gas
- Usually, methane in coal seams
- Natural gas trapped in fractures and pores of sandstones and shales
Oil shale
- Deposits of organic compounds called kerogen in sedimentary rocks that have not undergone sufficient pressure, heat or time to become conventional oil
- The USA has 77% of known global reserves
Canada tar sands facts
- Canada has the world’s largest reserves of tar sands, with three major deposits in Alberta.
- There is surface mining over 3.4% of the area
- Production increased from zero point 1,000,000 barrels a day in 1980 to 2.3 million in 2014 and is predicted to reach 4,000,000 by 2030
- $4 trillion is expected to go into the Canadian economy between 2015 and 2035
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
What are tar sands?
- A mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen - a very viscous oil
- The oil is too thick to be pumped from the ground
- It must be taken from an open pit, or strip mined
- To recover the oil, it must be separated from the sands using very hot water diluted with lighter hydrocarbons
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
How are tar sands extracted?
- Tar sands are extracted by open cast mining
- The extracted material is crushed and mixed with water, and the bitumen is separated before it can be used
- Tar sands can also be pumped out by high pressure steam which is injected underground to separate the bitumen from the sand
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Social costs
- Fears over pollution in the Athabasca River, atmospheric toxins and an increased incidence of rare cancers and autoimmune diseases
- Disruption to traditional ways of life - the area is inhabited by many indigenous people
- There is now a housing crisis, as thousands of workers have been shipped in
- Gambling, substance abuse, and crime have risen
- There are impacts on local wildlife and people, leaks into water supplies from tailings ponds, and infringements of indigenous people’s treaty rights over fishing and hunting grounds
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
social benefits
- New jobs in areas where other employment is limited
- Local business businesses benefited from the trade
- 151,000 direct jobs in 2013 had been created
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Implications for the carbon cycle
-In 2013 eight point 5% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions came from tar sands operations , with a predicted increase to 14% by 2030
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Consequences for the resilience of fragile environments
- There is a large amount of energy needed with the heating and pumping even before the oil is used - this results in an estimated contribution to global warming 3 times higher than conventional oil
- the mining process leaves scars on the landscape which are refilled with the sands once the oil has been extracted
- the tailings ponds contain toxic chemicals and have killed migrating waterfowl
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Role of business in developing reserves
- Local and international companies include shell BP
- Producers of this crude oil from these oil sands says that it will have a positive impact on the economies of Alberta and Canada
- The Canadian tar sands operations are regulated by national and provincial bodies and regulations they said target over 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Alberta by 2017
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Environmental group opinions
-Greenpeace called for an end to the industrialization of indigenous territories forests and wetlands in northern Alberta
Case study - Canada Tar Sands
Governments role
- The regional and national government promote tar sands for energy security and economic development
- However, they want to ensure sustainable and responsible extraction
Case study - shale gas usa
What is shale gas?
-Is a natural gas which is mostly methane trapped inside impermeable shell rocks, so it cannot be extracted by normal drilling
Case study - shale gas usa
How is it extracted?
- The rock must be broken to free the gas, which is done by hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known fracking
- this involves forcing water mixed with chemicals into shale rock so that the rock splits apart and any gas flows into a prepared well where it is concentrated enough to recover
Case study - shale gas usa
Benefits
- Increased energy reserves
- reduces need for imports
- flexible energy source
Case study - shale gas usa
Impact on environment
- Can involve vertical drilling which has an impact on the ground surface
- there needs to be many drill sites which can impact the ground surface
- lowered local groundwater levels
- possible chemical contamination of groundwater and surface water
- methane gas leaks adding to the greenhouse effect
- Risk of minor earth tremors and subsidence from altering the rock underground
- In 2015 in the USA natural gas overtook coal as the main generator of electricity
- The carbon footprint of shale gas is about half that of coal and lower than liquefied natural gas
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
How were they created?
- With help from China, the Brazilian state company Petrobras began developing a shush deep-water oilfield discovered in 2006, with estimated reserves or 50 to 80 billion barrels
- Pilot wells began producing oil in 2010, and in 2015 production reached 885 thousand barrels a day
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
what Is the price for this?
investments between 2014 and 2018 will reach 200 and $21 billion
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
Why is deep ocean oil important for Brazil?
- at the present time only 13% of Brazil’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels
- the oil would help diversify its energy mix
- provide greater energy security in case drought reduces hydroelectric capacity
- creating jobs and income from exports
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
What is going wrong?
- By 2016 Petrobras was 100 billion dollars in debt as a result of lower global oil prices
- the high cost of developing the oilfield
- political corruption that resulted in job losses and the arrest of politicians
- new construction activities such as refinery at comp Ridge were delayed
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
Costs:
- costs are high - a special fleet of storage and offloading ships was required at $2 billion each
- drilling conditions are therefore difficult, with the addition of flammable gases and rock salt layers that flex - the oilfield is 200 to 300 kilometres offshore, where the seabed is at a depth of 2000 metres
Case study - deep water oil in Brazil
concerns
-there are concerns about oil related activities spoiling the environment and causing oil spills and also about the maintenance of safety equipment
