Washington, April 08: The United States plans to offer other countries help in determining whether they have big natural gas resources trapped in shale rock and show them how to bring those supplies to market, a top U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.
Switching to natural gas from coal to fuel power plants would result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions, while helping developing countries in particular provide electricity supplies for their growing economies.
Improved drilling technology has allowed the United States to boost its production of shale gas and increase its gas reserves by decades.
The U.S. Geological Survey will offer its services to seven to 10 countries that have the best prospects for holding vast resources of shale gas, said David Goldwyn, the State Department’s coordinator for international energy affairs.
“That is good for their development and that is also good for their ability to have a choice in fuel,” Goldwyn said while speaking at the United States Energy Association’s annual meeting.
The United States has officially offered its assistance to China and India, and other countries with potentially large shale gas resources that are under consideration include Jordan, Poland, Chile, Uruguay and Morocco, according to Goldwyn.
He said the State Department may get China’s answer in May and India’s in early June.
He said any countries that take up the U.S. offer will have to agree to allow the USGS to make the gas resource information public. That would give companies that want to develop the shale resources confidence that the resource assessments are accurate, he said.
Goldwyn said the State Department will also help those countries determined to have shale gas come up with a plan to bring those resources to market.
The U.S. assistance will also show the countries how to auction off the shale gas, how to establish investment returns that attract companies to develop the gas, and how to provide the infrastructure for moving the equipment to produce the gas.
—–Agencies