Shale, gas and water

This is a short technical note as part of a series that discusses some of the aspects of fossil fuel production. Earlier posts in the series are listed in the column on the right. By the nature of the length of post that I think will hold people's interest, and what I think folk know and want to know, these posts tend to be very simplistic reviews of topics that are often, in detail, much more complex. I am very grateful to those who, in comments, help to illustrate that complexity.

One of the most promising sources of natural gas that has recently started to come into production is that from the shale deposits around the United States. Since it is possible that similar gas or oil-bearing shales occur around the world this provides a new potential source of energy that has some considerable promise, in the short term, for helping to fuel the world.

Shale, as a descriptive term, does not describe just a single rock, however, and there are a large variety of shale types. Consider, if you will, that much of the shale that contains the hydrocarbon started out as the mud at the bottom of a bay, as the algae bloomed, grew, multiplied and died, to be trapped within the mud and gradually buried with it. As the layer was further buried beneath additional layers of material, so the pressure, and increasing heat, gradually turned the oil in the algae into either oil or natural gas. Along the way the mud itself was compressed, largely dewatered, and baked so that it turned into what we now call shale. When these reservoirs are now tapped, they can produce large initial flows of natural gas, for example, in the Haynesville, the Garfield 25 H-1 just started production at some 20 million cu.ft/day at 7,700 psi delivery pressure.

There are other shale types that are found in producing fossil fuels. In the same way that the mud underlay the water where algae grew, it also pervaded the swamps where, during the Carboniferous era, the trees and vegetation grew that, in time, and to a degree under the same type of burial, pressurization and heating, led to the formation of coal seams. The mud underneath that was the soil in which the trees had been growing was also changed, and so it also formed the shale layer that remained under the coal through the eons. (In the North of England we sometimes referred to it as the “seat earth.”)

But while the term shale is used to describe a generic type of rock not all shales are the same, in the same way as not all soils are the same. By geological description the key part of the description lies in the bedded nature of the rock, and its high clay content. But is it the clay part of the content that I want to focus on in this piece.

Geologists are strict with their rules on sedimentary rocks. Sediment is divided by particle size into gravel, sand, silt and clay. Claystone must have at least twice as much clay as silt and no more than 10 percent sand. It can have more sand, up to 50 percent, but that is called a sandy claystone. (See all this in the Sand/Silt/Clay ternary diagram.) What makes a claystone shale is the presence of fissility—it splits in more or less thin layers whereas claystone is massive.

Shale can be fairly hard if it has a silica cement, making it closer to chert, but usually it is soft and easily weathers back into clay. Shale may be hard to find except in roadcuts, unless a harder stone on top of it protects it from erosion.

The reason for stressing the point is that of weatherability, or how the shale holds up in the presence of water. Let me tell a small anecdotal story.

Back some years ago we used to test rock for different companies, and had been sent some samples of a shale, which we were asked to saturate in water before testing. Due to some confusion we did not get that message initially, and the rock sat – as received – over the weekend. First thing Monday we got a frantic call, don’t put the samples in water. Turned out that two different sets of samples had been sent, and the other sample had been immersed in water over the weekend, and when the lab had looked in the bucket that morning, they had found a residual pile of particles as the shale had totally disintegrated in the presence of water. The shale was so sensitive that we ended up doing all the sample prep (cutting, coring, grinding etc) dry to make sure that we could keep the samples intact.

Testing different shale samples for their susceptibility to water attack, their durability if you will, is not that easy. One of the more common tests is known as slake durability, for which there is a standard test protocol. (Free version here. The sensitivity is also perhaps illustrated by the categories into which the results from another one of these tests (the jar slake test) can fall;

Different responses to shale testing in the jar slake test.

The durability tests generally involve the tumbling of ten intact sample pieces of shale in water for ten minutes, oven drying it, and repeating the tumbling and drying. The amount of material retained on a screen afterwards as a percentage defines the durability. But bear in mind that the shale may still have fragmented or softened.

I am putting a little bit of emphasis on how sensitive the shales are, in general, to water, because, when the oil and gas shale reservoirs are developed, the drilling is usually performed with a water-based mud, and the resulting fractures that are driven into the shale to provide pathways for the gas to leave, are created using a water-based frac’ing fluid.

Now there are ways of stopping, at least temporarily, the wetting action of the water on the shale. One way of doing this is by adding more polymers to the water. Particularly at higher concentrations these (which also make the water "slick") can reduce wettability and stop the softening of the shale, but some of that work is still part science and part art. And part of the question is how the shale will behave in the longer term after it has been wetted.

Remember that to get the gas out the fractures through the rock have to be held open, and the way that this is done is to push small particles (called proppant, but similar to sand in nature) into the fracture to hold it open and still give a passage way through the fracture for the gas to get out.

But if the wetted shale along the edges of the fractures does soften with time, then under the pressures of the well, it may deform around the sand particles that are holding the fractures open, and slowly close the fracture, reducing production rate over that anticipated from a fully open fracture, and reducing the potential overall recovery of gas from the well. In that case, in order to sustain production from the well, it will need to be refrac’ed, perhaps more than once.

Problems for the Pickens' Plan

It is a relatively cool, overcast day here in Cambridge, MA, a little damp and after yesterday being chased up the New York Thruway by a storm carrying hail and cutting visibility to yards, (and the Fusion getting 41.6 mpg), only the occasional tree moved in an almost still day. Which is to suggest that it is not a good day for the prime candidates promoted as the sustainable fuels of tomorrow, here in the North East. That does not stop the tourists, however, and I noted as we came back to the hotel earlier this evening, that it was full and turning folk away. (Though it was easier for us to get rooms this year than last, and it is now offering a premium for those that stay over a weekend, and is giving away Internet services, neither of which held true last year).

The larger blow to the sustainable energy story today, however, is not the chill of an autumn day in July in Massachusetts, but rather the colder stillness of the lack of movement by Boone Pickens on his wind farm in Texas. The reasons for the turn around depend on who you read. The Wall Street Journal notes

Mr. Pickens, who has spent the last year pushing his "Pickens Plan" to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, said the wind farm project was scuttled in part because of the lack of adequate transmission lines to carry the electricity from remote locations to cities. He had hoped to build new transmission lines but ultimately was unable to secure financing.

while Daily Finance noted the problems of raising money

Pickens, 81, was undaunted declaring at press conference on Capitol Hill, "I didn't cancel it ...Financing is tough right now and so it's going to be delayed a year or two."

"Cancel" may not be the right word. How about review? Pickens, who gained fame as a corporate raider in the 1980s, was planning to build the world's largest wind facility, at a site in the windy, flatlands near Pampa, Texas, which would generate enough electricity to power about 1.2 million homes.

The initial problem that Mr Pickens faces is that he has ordered the turbines and “like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace."

There are 687 turbines involved, each to produce 1.5 MW of power and the question of where to put them, given that there are problems with the initial siting due to the need for connection to the grid, is likely to be a challenge. The problems have been visible for some time. Back in November there were signs that the credit crunch was hurting the program, and the drop in natural gas prices (which were the other half of the coin) has meant that there is no rationale for changing from natural gas to wind at the present time.

On the other hand, back this time last year the Texas legislature approved putting in the connections to bring the wind power into the grid.

Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state.

The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running.

The project will ease a bottleneck that has become a major obstacle to development of the wind-rich Texas Panhandle and other areas suitable for wind generation.

The transmission lines are needed since, at present, there is more capacity than can be delivered through the existing grid.

"When the amount of generation exceeds the export capacity, you have to start turning off wind generators" to keep things in balance, said Hunter Armistead, head of the renewable energy division in North America at Babcock & Brown, a large wind developer and transmission provider. "We've reached that point in West Texas."

Unfortunately that plan, shortly thereafter, ran into the Justice Department. The initial idea had been to integrate a water pipeline into the right-of-way so that Mr Pickens could also pipe water to Dallas and the water-short folk in East Texas from his holdings in West Texas.

At the time, Mesa General Counsel Bobby Stillwell said the company "got too clever."

Said Stillwell: "We had thought that doing them jointly would be a convenience and maybe even a cost savings to us and the landowners. There were two things that we misjudged. To do that we would have to acquire a 250-foot right of way instead of just a 150-foot one for electricity. That was enough difference to the landowners," he said. "Secondly, they were criticizing the whole project, both water and electricity, when they were really concerned about water. We didn't want both to be subject to the same criticism."

And so, last September, the water pipeline idea was scrapped, then the plan to use the wind power to displace natural gas was also put aside, and now the idea of the large wind farm itself has had to be laid aside.
But

Pickens continues to buy up water rights and says he expects to build smaller wind farms in Texas, as well as in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wisconsin. He's still hopeful about his hedge funds, too.

This is occurring just as the President is sending out a team to encourage rural America to become involved in sustainable energy. It is not the best juxtaposition of events to see the sales pitch for wind included in their statements.

Wind energy offers rural landowners a new cash crop. Although leasing arrangements vary widely, royalties are typically around $2,000 per year for a 750-kilowatt wind turbine or 2% to 3% of the project's gross revenues. Given typical wind turbine spacing requirements, a 250-acre farm could increase annual farm income by $14,000 per year, or more than $55 per acre. In a good year, that same plot of land might yield $90 worth of corn, $40 worth of wheat, and $5 worth of beef." (Original Blogger's note: This report and its numbers are 5 years old. I've heard of lease payments of $5,000 per turbine.)

So just as I thought that wind was taking the commanding lead in the alternate energy stakes, we have days like today. Such events are bound to slow the growth of alternative fuels to the fossil fuels we now use, which makes the ongoing concern about the long-term viability of supply of those fuels ( worrisomely summarized by Sam Foucher at TOD) that much grimmer news.
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P62. Pick Points

Well after being told that we had to “Drill, Baby, Drill,” a Federal appeals court has" Just Said No!” It ruled that permits for off-shore drilling, whether in Alaska or the Gulf, must give greater consideration to environmental impacts of such oil exploration.

The lawsuit was brought by three environmental groups that want to protect the ecosystem and the Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska, a tribe that lives off the wildlife on the Chukchi Sea coast.

It is of particular concern down in Louisiana where it might have significant impact out into the Gulf.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, was dismayed by the court's ruling. "We have so much science to prove that in the Gulf of Mexico, the environment is protected. Wildlife actually flourishes around offshore production facilities," Briggs said. "I believe that this is just politics."

The appeals court ordered the Interior Department, now run by President Barack Obama's appointee Ken Salazar, to analyze the areas to determine environmental risks and potential damage before moving ahead with the program.

However the story is a little different up in Alaska, and in this particular case, since among other things it impacts the subsistence living of the local tribes.

Eskimos living along the coastline worry that drilling noise may disturb migrating bowhead whales, walruses and seals, which they depend on for food. They've also questioned whether Shell is prepared for a potential oil spill in the Beaufort Sea, where moving ice can make a cleanup difficult.

"Americans are looking for a clean energy future, and trading animals and their habitat for massive oil company profits is the way of the past," said Charles Clusen, director of the Alaska project for the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.

The Manifa oilfield in Saudi Arabia has gone through a number of “on again, off again” cycles. While it has the potential to produce over a million barrels of oil a day, the chemical content of the oil is such that it cannot be economically refined by existing facilities. Thus Aramco have planned to build a couple of refineries in Saudi Arabia to allow them to usefully bring the field into production. Well it now looks as though work is going to start again on building some of the on-shore crude handling facilities. (The oilfield is just offshore). Last year plans were announced for a new refinery at Jubail that would process the oil, with initial production scheduled for 2011, and the refinery was supposed to be up and running in 2012. Well it has now slipped to 2013, and will only process 400,000 bd, of the Manifa production, but the work is going forward, though the economic downturn is anticipated to have lowered the overall cost. The other refinery planned to take the remainder of the Manifa oil has been planned to go into Yanbu. The partnership this time is between Aramco and ConocoPhilips, and current plans are for initial bids to be solicited this summer, with contracts awarded before the end of the year. Production is again anticipated for 2013.

Gazprom has just successfully raised $2.25 billion in bonds, and Gazprom Neft (the oil branch) is going to go ahead this week to raise some 10 billion roubles ($299 million) in a domestic sale this week. They may need some of the money to recompense Turkmenistan, who is still claiming that the blast in the gas pipeline the other week, was Gazprom’s fault. Given that Gazprom was hoping to get more gas from Turkmenistan, this is not good for them, since it continues to delay pipeline expansion.

The third summer of drought in California is causing additional tensions in that state as water restrictions are reimposed, at the same time that water supplies to farms are being cut.

"Up to 19 million southern Californians this summer will feel the impact of a new water reality that has been in the making for years, if not decades," said MWD board chairman Timothy Brick in a statement.
In the Central Valley, meanwhile, tens of thousands of farmers, farm workers, and local officials protested federal and state water cuts during a series of marches this march.

Between 70,000 and 80,000 farm workers are out of work this year as a result of water shortages, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. California ordinarily supplies America with half of its fruits and vegetables.

Some 100,000 acres of agricultural land will not be planted.

At the same time the state is praising the success of the re-flooding of Owens Lake as a way of both stopping regional dust storms from the lake bed, and coincidentally providing a wetlands for migrating birds. The only problem?

As it stands, each year the project uses about 60,000 acre-feet of water worth about $54 million -- enough to supply 60,000 families.

There are no easy choices, although, as is noted:

"We're beginning to get to the real cost of water," says Colin Sabol, vice president of marketing for ITT Corporation, the world's largest provider of pumps and water equipment. He notes that US consumers pay on average only one-third of what Germany pays for its water.

Germany "charges a price that allows them to reinvest in their infrastructure," Mr. Sabol says.

Some $250 million in stimulus funds are going to be directed at helping with the problem. Perhaps they could learn from the “grey water” controversy out there. Back in the early 1990’s the State carried out an experiment that allowed homeowners to use grey water (that from showers and dishwashers) for irrigation. The project at the time was a success, with great things predicted. Unfortunately bureaucracy stepped in and made the regulations so complex that the benefits never officially happened and there are only 200 legal systems in the State – maybe this could be changed, since it is estimated that up to 16% of the state consumption could be saved and reused.

2009 Energy Conference - Natural Gas discussion

Following the coffee break the meeting broke into two sessions, one that dealt with the future of transport demand, and one on the future of natural gas markets. I went to the one on natural gas markets, since this is the one that deals more with supply. The five main speakers sat around a table and chatted, under the guidance of EIA moderator, Steve Harvey. First they introduced themselves.

Rick Smead of the American Clean Skies Foundation spoke of the benefits of natural gas in keeping the air clean. He noted that the opportunities provided by the production from gas shale give a step change to the supply available and that it is just a case of going out and working out how to get it.

Jim Simpson of BENTEK who provide real time supply data and modeling, noted that it is only practical to model for two years ahead, conditions are changing that quickly. He polled the audience on where the gas price was going and the majority seemed to indicate slightly up. (Perhaps to $6), though he seemed to think that it is more likely that it will stay below or at $4.

Brian Jeffries of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority talked of the conditions (93% of Wyoming’s energy is exported) that led to the creation of the authority.

Christine Tezak had, until the recent debacle, been working for the Stanford Group and brought up some of the problems that might face the growth of the industry. How does the recent concern over the fluids used in fracing the horizontal wells and the Clean Water Act impact their future use, given that some of the water may pick up small amounts of contaminants, such as benzine, when it comes into contact with the rock formation. The question also is that while the Waxman- Markey bill gives a current Congressional position it is not clear which direction the Congress will swing from that base.

John Strom of Haddington Ventures talked a little on bulk energy storage and particularly wind energy with its need to even out the supply load. There is a need to separate the two parts to energy supply, that of the energy availability itself, and that of storage capacity to hold the energy against demand. He noted that there are “lots” of natural gas folk coming into the new Administration and that it is the “working girl” of the current energy supply.


(I won’t identify speakers in the following discussion). The change from 2005 when 2 hurricanes in the Gulf caused a rapid run up in price, to this past year, when 2 hurricanes and the price of natural gas dropped, indicates the advances that have been made in natural gas supply. This has been brought about with the coming of the natural gas from shale, and the vast reserves that this has now added. The Haynesville alone, now that the technical problems are resolved, has added a great quantity to national supply, and wells there are currently being throttled back to control feed into the network.

Those states in the North East that need the gas, and for whom supply is limited by the size of the pipes feeding it to them, now have the choice, with the Marcellus, of providing some of their own energy, but to do so will likely need to modify some of their regulations and simplify them. The Marcellus apparently runs under the Manhattan aquifer.

The conate water issue (the water found in the rock with the gas) as well as the need to dispose of the water used in the multiple frac jobs that make gas shale practical have not been fully addressed yet in PA and NY, though PA is somewhat more advanced in this regard. Exactly how the availability of LNG will play into this market is not clear, but the potential of oversupply, and the resulting long-term price that is closer to $4 than $6 will control where that NG goes. One supplier noted that a tanker, by the time it clears the Gibraltar passage will have passed 14 terminals where it could have dropped its cargo. Thus if the US price is too low, (considering the $4 transit fee) the tankers will simply divert to where the price is higher.

Alaskan natural gas was thought to be still 10 years away (and ask again in 10 years). With current lower 48 supplies being what they are, that gas is not needed, and may be more profitably be put in LNG tankers and sold to Asia.

It was noted that while drilling overall is down, numbers are still holding up for the Haynesville and some of the other shales. However it should be noted that at present natural gas is only used for about 25% of its potential in the generation of electricity. That percentage can easily be increased, and if it rises to 35%, then all bets on the amount that is available relative to supply will likely be off the table.

For while much of the argument at the moment is over the relative amount of Carbon Dioxide that coal generates relative to NG (about double) the other concerns over SO2 and NOX may also cause movement toward the cleaner gas.

As natural gas is used more and more as a partner with wind in providing the backup service it is needed, since the economics of running transmission lines based only on the 33% availability of wind is somewhat less favorable. The high variability in the wind energy supply from a farm is of some concern (and running a gas turbine only when the supply fails to ensure stable demand will guarantee an extremely short life for the turbine, due to the highly variable load).

There is a growing question as to the availability of transmission lines given future power generator location relative to the market, and with an adequate supply looking to the future (technology keeps solving the problems that face the industry) those issues should perhaps be addressed in more detail. And yet the models only go out two years, and the life of the gas wells in the shale is on the same order of magnitude (something I found folk were a lot cagier about discussing). However the size of the reserve is such that now the independent producers that have developed the product are now seeing the majors start to move into the market as its size has become more evident. They have the capital to stabilize the market and production from the fields. Certainly the size of the reserves that have been identified in the United States has weakened the ability of Russia, Iran and Qatar to form a cartel to control price and production.

Coming out of the meeting a couple of folk commented that if you did not know the business, following the discussion would have been a little difficult, and I think that this held true for most of the papers given at the meeting.

P28 Pick Points

Half-a-dozen or so stories of interest:

As up to seven new LNG ports and a number of carriers are completed this year it is expected that supplies will increase to the United States. The projects have been planned for so long, and cost so much that gas must flow and be sold. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has had to develop policies on LNG , but even they defer to the market. Given this potential for over-supply the Freeport LNG terminal is looking into the potential for re-export, and local storage, since peak demand and supply may not be in phase. On the other hand recognizing that the time might be ripe to gain access to a cheaper source of power, Japan’s Tokyo Gas is looking at installing a new LNG terminal. To ensure supplies they have agreed to extend buying contracts for LNG supplies from Alaska. The Japanese, who are the largest users of LNG, need to do this to replace supplies that have been lost due to export reductions from Indonesia. The Alaskan gas sells for roughly 4/7ths of what the Japanese would have to pay for gas from Qatar.

In the lower 48, gas producers from shale are moving to stabilize supplies to the network. A new “Tiger Pipeline” is planned to collect and deliver for Haynesville shale gas into the interstate network. A new well is going into the Haynesville, that will run 17,000 ft horizontally. The Marcellus shale is also seeing some investor interest. XTO expects that gas (natural) prices will head back up before the year is out.

Hopes for energy price increases are hitting the wind industry, just as it comes out of a year where the USA added 8.5 GW of wind power. Of the major states adding wind power, California has seen the smallest recent growth, and in part that is because all the “easy” sites have now been taken, and the costs of permitting are now beginning to bite in the sites that are now in development. As a result Iowa is now second in wind power in the nation and has six manufacturers. But it turns out that the claim that the wind industry had more employees than coal mining relied on skewed counting (they counted everyone in wind, but only the miners in coal mining. But older wind farms are refurbishing with larger turbines and this also helps economically.

There will be a new 500 MW farm in Iowa, if they can get enough land, but construction will start in 3-5 years. In Rhode Island they plan on starting an offshore plant in 2010, they have enough wind for utility size operations which is level 3 on land (out of 7 with 1 being poorest), but have higher levels offshore, which is where the farm will go. In inland Northwest Missouri they now have a town (albeit only 1300 people) that receives all their power from the 4 nearby wind turbines.

The disruption caused by Total giving a contract to an outside, rather than domestic company in the UK may spread to other refineries and include nuclear power plants.

High temperatures in Australia, and particularly Melbourne played some considerable havoc with the Australian Open . Even as that ended, rolling blackouts are anticipated today because of the closure of the power link from Tasmania (due to overheating) . About 20,000 homes in the state (Victoria) are without power and the rise in the demand for energy has reached the limits of what can be provided. Bush fires are also threatening power lines, and a local coal company operation , while the drought is draining local water supplies . Locals are also concerned because of the secrecy of the order of priorities for load shedding.

It is not only in California and Australia that water supply is a problem. In the Central Asian republics Russia is stepping in to sort out possible conflicts since the countries from which the main water supply comes (Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan( want to develop hydropower, while those downstream (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) want the water for agriculture. The Tajiks are willing to offer the Uzbeks water for energy. Turkmenistan is also involved since they send out electric power that must pass through other countries to the end user.

Uzbekistan is demanding 10 per cent of the $0.03 per kilowatt paid by Tajikistan to Turkmenistan.
This year the Uzbeks are also charging Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan US$ 240 per 1000 m3, up from 145 dollars last year.

And the Tajiks are not taking kindly to the Russian intervention.

For more stories go to The Energy Bulletin or Drumbeat at The Oil Drum

P27. Pick Points

Half-a-dozen or so stories of interest:

Somewhere in Washington they are looking for incentives for us to buy a new car. The Germans have seen it work by providing 2,500 euros to everyone who replaces a car at least nine years old with a new one. The need for this can be seen by the continued decline in sales, even as industry incentives have risen to an average $2,902. Well maybe we should hold-off on a replacement until they decide ?

Having set some of the standards for automobiles that will likely soon impact the rest of the country, it is now California’s turn to go after energy inefficient appliances, such as TV’s, which can account for 10% of a home electricity bill. The Department of Energy is running a campaign to improve residential water heaters. Yet the amount set aside in the stimulus package is relatively quite small. Though that has not stopped some entrepreneurs. There are the standard steps that one can take to save energy but if the economy is to rebound, then the scale of increase that California has achieved needs to be applied, even perhaps in Italy.

One of the features of the Medieval Warming Period was the extensive and long-lasting droughts that hit Southern California. Trees grew where now lakes and rivers run, it was so dry. Now California is again facing severe drought. There are already campaigns to reduce water usage . With the snow pack only 61% of normal this could be the third year in a row where water runs short, and this is beginning to have serious consequences for agriculture . While the snow situation is a little better in Nevada, it too is facing problems. On the other hand Utah’s nine-year drought came to an end last June, and Arizona is seeing a moderate drought in Navajo County.

Following the Russia:Ukraine dispute over natural gas the relatively small volumes that could be sent around Ukraine through the North and South Stream pipelines is getting another look. In the South Gazprom is considering increasing capacity by 50% to 47 bcm. Coming the day after the meeting on the Nabucco pipeline, its major competitor, the response is quite quick. Germany points out that one can support both. But it may be Prime Minister Putin who makes the next move.

MidWestern Senators are urging a reconsideration of the FutureGen project. This plan to build a demonstration coal-fired power plant that would capture and sequester carbon dioxide was “restructured” by the last DOE Administration, and thus killed. This could not, perhaps have had anything to do with it being proposed for Illinois, where the junior Senator at the time had announced his support.

In order to help provide more electricity to Nepal, the price is to be raised and in this way load shedding can drop to 12 hours a day “soon” and to 6 hours a day by the end of February. There is s Singaporean there blogging about the problems.

For more stories see The Energy Bulletin or Drumbeat at The Oil Drum