It is basically a scientific challenge! Huge efforts have been made to make best use of renewable energy but unfortunately the efficiency in getting energy from sun or wind is unsatisfactory so far.

To put things in perspective, it could be a business game; Clearly, the oil and gas companies would be somewhat against any progress in this area, so the issue has to be looked at from a wider perspective; and major powers in O&G have to resolve this issue based on what-if approach because no one can stop science from its rapid progressing.

With the current dependence on oil and gas in present times for energy and the increasing population of the world, it is definitely clear that unconventional sources will be sought after to generate energy. Such sources include tar sands and extra heavy oil, nuclear energy, biomass and even more dependence on Solar energy. The interesting twist to unconventional sources is that very little have been exploited so far out of an extremely large amount. A typical example is the tar/oil sands. Three countries with the highest bitumen reserves are Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia respectively in a descending order. Estimated discovered bitumen in place in all amounts to about 2.5 trillion barrels and the prospective bitumen in place is thought to be about 817 billion barrels. Canada accounts for about 70% of the total figure which is about 1.73 trillion barrels (226.56 billion cubic meters). Over the years, Canada has been widely recognized for their efforts in exploiting this vast reserve of bitumen deposits as they remain the only country exploiting tar sands on an economic basis. Major deposits can be found in northern Alberta which is located in western Canada sedimentary basin even though this extends to the eastern part towards Saskatchewan. The three major tar sands exploration areas in Alberta are the Athabasca, Peace River, and Cold Lake, their average deposit depths estimated at 300, 500 and 400 respectively. The three areas comprise of an amazing 1.73 trillion barrels of discovered bitumen in place! Various technological advancements have been developed for the safe extraction and processing of these resources. However, it is obvious that there are still many tar sand fields yet to be developed in the world. Some countries with enormous amounts have not even delved into exploration.

This goes further to show that there will be more reliance on these unconventional sources in the future.

Ojo Oluwayimika Joseph

Oil and Gas Engineering

As our reserves of fossil fuels run out, the world will be looking to fill the gap with an alternative energy source.

As my colleagues have already discussed, there are many alternatives. As engineers, how to energise our planet will be one of the biggest challenges of our generation.

Much has been said about wind energy. I do not believe this to be the way forward. It worries me also because being from Scotland. The Scottish government seem to be banking so much on the successful development of wind technology.

At the moment it is heavily subsidised by our government, and unless it catches on commercially, it is a non-starter because the government cannot keep subsidising it forever.

Cheaper alternatives are coming to the market such as shale gas. With governments around the world looking to implement austerity measures during this global recession, I fear that they will look for the cheaper energy sources rather than developing more expensive longer term solutions.

We cannot let this happen.

One thing is for certain, as human beings we will adapt to our environment. Fossil fuels will run out and they will be replaced with an alternative. What the alternative is..who knows!!

ndrew Carss - MSc Subsea Engineering (DL)

We know that our oil and gas reserves are depleting slowly
and this concerns everybody. What will substitute this decrease in oil and gas
production? The answer generally is that, the renewable will kick in and a
large share of the future energy will be developed from renewable sources. In
my opinion oil and gas still will be there, with the discovery of tar sands, shale
oil and shale gas the future of the energy market will continue with fossil
fuels as primary sources. But extraction of oil and gas from these
unconventional sources comes with a big price, the pollution caused by the
production from these sources are way high than the usual practise. The water,
soil and air pollution will be increasing if technology is not efficient enough.
If the current methods applied to recover the unconventional sources continue,
the amount of green house gases in the atmosphere will be even higher than now.

So if no compatible way is there to extract the unconventional
sources and environmental safety is of prime importance then the best possible
way is to rely upon renewables more.

Nowadays, one of the prominent issue caused many debates is Energy landscape of the future. From my perspective, becoming dominant of oil and gas production is inescapable. The cheap price as well as expansion of exploring and exploiting wells is the main reasons of my attitude.
However, boosting energy demands by virtue of increasing population draws global attention to develop a method for supplying priority requirements such as heating and electricity.
So, I think nuclear power is the best abbreviation for generating required energy. Obviously, it will expand day after day thoroughly around the world. Nonetheless, I become aware that people usually scare about nuclear. I think because of their background about nuclear hazardous incidents whether industrial or political.
I don’t really believe in renewable, due to its cost. It is more expensive rather than conventional and it is also young method and complicated(Hurst, 2012).
Imagine 40 years later, still utilizing oil and gas and the issues associated with them. Seriously, our children will be in dangerous situation. Sometimes I think they have to wear a specific mask for inhaling and exhaling. Such a scary landscape!!!

REFERENCE:
HURST, A. 2012. RE: Energy landscape of the future.

Topic 51: Energy landscape of the future and the risks associated

Recent years, the way that people consume
the energy didn’t have a big change.

As the fossil energy such as the coal, oil
and gas, they are all the non-renewable energy,

people more and more rely on
the nuclear, wind energy, solar energy, hydroenergy and some other renewable energies.

The renewable energy cannot be only used as the recycling
energy,

but also keep the balance of the ecology and environment.

Well,
everything has two sides, we need to develop the renewable energy with
minimizing the risk for the environment.

Zhang Yanan

ID: 51233945

MSC IN OIL AND GAS ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

Well I believe that the direction of the energy landscape is
on a dangerous path. With the global warming that is in the loom there is need
to reduce the carbon footprint. But as it stands with many of the new methods
that are coming up they are more dangerous and harmful to the environment than
they do good like with the recovery of shale gas the fracking causes more
problems and then with the chemicals they then inject into the ground these can
end up in the water streams and hence have a major impact to the environment
but because it is cheaper it is well sort after then some of the renewable
technologies that can drive us into the future.

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Fungisai Nota BEng(Hons) MIET

Commercial scale fusion energy is predicted to come on-line by 2050[1]. As described previously [2] the safety related risks for fusion are benign relative to other energy alternatives. The biggest risk is that it fails to come to fruition given the heavy investment and apparent lack of long-term alternatives.

Oil and gas, coal and nuclear are all short term energy sources and are not sustainable options although they will be required to fill the gap until we find a true alternative. Water and food shortages will increase energy demand and unless we curb this I cannot see how renewable energy (wind/wave/solar) can meet demand.

[1]http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9079.aspx

[2]//m.limpotrade.com/node/13736#comment-22428

Hello Oyebade, I should have replied to this much earlier but hadn’t got chance to see it. Well, a few Carbon Capture projects include Statoil’s Sleipner(since 1996, the sleipner CO2 xapture project has stored about 8MtCO2) and Snøhvit site in the North Sea(this one’s storing 700,000 tonnes of CO2 reinjected back into the ground), BP’s In Salah Field in Algeria since 2004 has so far stored 3MtCO2, Weyburn CO2 project in Canada has been running since 2000.

Monitoring schemes have proven successful so far in all these projects with no effects on underground formations and these have served as very critical sources of research and lessons learnt from a very important guide to assure the reliability of CCS (Carbon Capture Systems) in the world. The North Sea’s salt aquifers are estimated at storage capacity of about 4.6bt CO2. These are emission volumes accounting for about 200 years worth emissions from Scotland and North East England! CCS development is the way to go if we’re to counter the effects of dependence on fossil fuel to meet of the world’s energy demand at the moment and in the next number of decades.

Ambrose Ssentongo

Personally while I might identify with the sentiments behind ‘renewables’ I don’t really see a future rural landscape littered with spinning windmills. Oil and Gas will surely be the way forward and considering that we sit on the edge of an energy revolution, with vast untapped sources of oil and gas producing shale globally available it can only be a matter of time before the world energy map is transformed.

Fracking for Oil and Gas will become the mainstream source for energy globally, with gas becoming the dominant power source. Because of its virtually global distribution, oil and gas shale fracking will offer energy independence to almost all nations with untold economic benefits to the nations that adopt and develop this cheap energy source.

The downside to this will be the lack of enforceable safety regulations, with many counties used to depending on direct imports of their oil and gas, without being involved in the production and processing stages, new global organisations will necessary need to be established to ensure that universal safety standards are applied.

Fracking represents minimal risk oil and gas extraction with the main danger being the extraction of the gas. It’s been reported that any pollution that has been associated with fracking for gas is to do with gas seepage. The results of this can occur up to a kilometer above where the actual fracking took place, which suggests that the main source of pollution associated with fracking comes from leaking seals on the wellheads, consequently HSE will need to focus intently on the managerial aspects of the gas production wells.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/07/fracking-fuels-energy-debate-and-controversy/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/9733518/Ignore-the-doom-merchants-Britain-should-get-fracking.html

Ambrose Ssentongo

The anticipated role of nuclear power has been scaled back as countries have reviewed policies in the wake of the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Japan and France have recently joined the countries with intentions to reduce their use of nuclear power. The evidences show that nuclear power will fall back in the future. I think the most important reason is the risks of using nuclear energy are relative higher than others. The accidents of nuclear plants may bring massive disaster to human beings. Therefore, from the forecast of nuclear power, we can believe that the role of safety will be more and more important as the energy technologies will develop faster and faster.

Reference: IEA, World Energy Outlook 2012

First, i disagree with you because i don't think oil and gas will finish and also people and to be more specific companies will always relay on oil and gas. Oil and gas are big business and as the other renewable energy going in advance, the technology in oil and gas industry are going very rapidly. there are a lot of ways now to extract more oil and gas and even companies thinking of shale , tar and other sources. In my opinion, oil and gas will always lead the energy industry and other types of energy can support. Also, people working in oil and gas industry has big experience with risk and reliability so to ignore all of this and go to new types of energy and relay completely on it will be difficult. I know that accidents in oil and gas industry is bigger than other accidents in other sectors on energy but this is because also oil and gas are the most used sources so its normal to have accidents in them.

I dont quite agree with you Ambrose that CCS is the saviour of the world in terms of mitigating carbon emissions. Reducing C02 emissions by atleast 90%?? C'mon, that is just preposterous because the technology hasnt been proven yet as it is still undergoing series of tests. We terefore cannot rely on an uncertainty as an efficient solution to the C02 emission challenge. Despite this vgueness, if CCS would actually pull through, the difficulty in finding reservoirs large enough to deposit huge amounts of C02 essential to fulfil the aims of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is another issue t contend with and this is excluding the other challenges of this technology such as earthquakes triggered by injecting large amounts of C02 into a formation which is capable of damaging the reservoir seal that ensures the permanent character of the storage and encourage escape of the C02 through leaks.

In my opinion, sourcing for alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, wave and other renewables would be the best way out of this quagmire as continous use ofC02 infested energy sources and running helter-skelter to find mitigation techniques isnt exactly an intelligent cycle to keep running.

Read more: An energy briefing paper insight. Carbon Capture and Storage; Analysing Uncertainty.UK Energy Research Centre.

Oluwatosin Oyebade

The future energy landscape will be influenced by various factors, the most notable ones being population growth, economic development, energy security, environmental impact and technological change among others. However, it is the impact on the environment that bears the greatest risk to humanity.

Recent environmental disasters such as Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina in the US, as well as the Tsunami that hit Japan causing damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant have all been linked to climate change. Reliance on fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) which contribute almost 50% of the world's energy demand will have to reduce if the fight to tackle climate change is to be won.

The UN Climate Change Conference 2012 being held in Doha, Qatar has ended today. Early indication suggests that the Kyoto Protocol has received an extension until 2020. However, a new protocol binding all nations to tackle climate change will be introduced by 2015. In addition, developing countries are set to receive some form of financial compensation from the industrialised nations for losses arising from climate change. Nonethless, the general consensus to continue tackling climate change remains.

What is not clearly set out is the methodology to be used to determine which losses arise from climate change and how they will be quantified for purposes of compensation.

1.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20653018

Kevin K. Waweru

MSc Oil and Gas Engineering

A major issue associated with biofuel as a future viable energy option is the fuel vs food argument.First generation feedstock include:seeds, grains, corn, and sugar cane; these are food crops, and hence will be in direct competition for food, when converted to fuel. Like Maria pointed out above, this will undermine the food production, and since the human population is projected to rapidly increase in the future, will increase poverty, introduce scarcity of food supplies and hence inflation of food prices [1]. The prevalent question would be: to fuel or to feed? To counter this issue, production of biofuels from second generation feedstock (non-food sources such as waste biomass, stalks of wheat, corn stover, wood, biomass crops) and third generation feedstock (algae) should be our focus for a more sustainable future.

Reference:

[1] Biofuels: Green Energy for the Century? Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition: 2010

Discussions about the future are
always interesting because there is rarely a prediction that is completely
accurate as factors are always changing with time.

As Ambrose mentioned earlier,
risk cannot be totally eliminated and as the world energy demand continues to
increase, more risky ventures and technologies will be reverted to, so as to
produce energy to meet this demand. Case in point is the fracking for shale gas
in the USA that was accepted as a saving technology despite its numerous
environmental effects, because at the time the country was running short of gas
supplies and had to spend heavily to meet its local energy demand.

My opinion is that although
research and development of numerous technologies to provide alternative energy
sources in the future is steadily on-going, there is a definite possibility of
having a period in the next 50 yearswhen the difference between energy demand
and supply is a thin line and desperate steps will be taken to avoid this. The
associated risks of energy development would be greater than we have today but
as always, research will provide more efficient and environmentally friendly
ways of solving emerging energy crises.

Hi Ross
I would like to continue your argument stating that “the future is down to each countries energy self-sufficiency”. I do agree but would also like to extend the point giving examples where the countries can work together to create a future. This would help to reduce the risk of a future with a low supply of energy.

• Beauly to Denny distribution upgrade to unlock the Highlands renewable energy (Ref 1)
• The langeled pipeline transporting natural gas from Norway to England (Ref 2)

I believe this is the perfect future to begin, as we know that each country will have the peaks and declines in several energy sources. For the UK perspective, having ties with Norway (known to be among the most advanced energy producing country) is a smart decision and may just become a saviour of our industry.

Ref 1 - Beauly - Denny upgrade approved, January 6, 2010, the Scottish government.
Ref 2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langeled_pipeline

I agree with the ideas that my colleagues have posted. Indeed, the future energy demand is going to be much greater due to increase in population.The technologies and energy sources that will used in the future largely depends on influential set legislations and policies.

The Climate Change Act 2008 for example requires that greenhouse gas emissions be cut by 80% below 1990 by 2050.[1] This act and others set out by the Kyoto protocol may force some energy technologies and energy sources out of use because they will become uneconomical. But this is good for the future of our planet. Coal, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, is expected to still remain in the energy mix by 2050 but this is largely dependent on the economical implementation of Carbon Capture and storage technologies.

The drive for more energy to fuel industrialized economies should by no means result in health risks for humans. Authorities that are charged to implement set out policies on greenhouse emissions must be given the full support they need both politically and financially.

Reference:

[1]http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/funding/funding_ops/cert/cert.aspx

With the future energy needs on the rise we need to look at alternatives to the finite supply of fossil fuels. We have already passes Hubberts peak in our global oil reserves, and despite finding more ingenious ways of extracting oil and gas we will eventually run out of them. The security in the future energy supply will be down to each countries self-sufficiency on energy sources and the 'energy poor' countries could become hostile to 'energy rich' countries. As Maria stated in the opening post, we need to look at developing the energy of the future today!

Ross Winter Msc Renewable Energy