Description

After a long period of relatively quiet, but steady, development, the gas industry entered rough waters over the past decade. In search of gas, new extraction methods were gradually deployed in the US to extract so-called unconventional gas; shale gas that had never really received serious attention until then. The so-called 'shalegas revolution' in the US signalled the start of a global search, including in Europe. The new natural gas could be the ideal, efficient and relatively clean energy source of the future.

In the Netherlands, Energiebeheer Nederland (EBN) published a preliminary inventory of possible reserves that promised considerable potential. However, the question is whether all that gas can be extracted. In Brabant, attempts are being made to secure permits for initial exploratory drilling, but this is meeting the now customary protests from local residents . In the US, too, protests are growing against the extraction of unconventional gas because of environmental problems and water pollution. A good example is film "Gasland", broadcast in late August 2011 on the VPRO programme "Tegenlicht"

In his presentation, Aad Correljé looks at these developments as a political scientist and economist. Besides involvement in the subject matter from his main professorship at TU Delft and position in leading institutes in the field of energy, including the Clingendael International Energy Programme, he is involved in research, education and consultancy on energy and water infrastructures, the regulation and liberalisation of the energy sector and the pursuit of sustainability. He focuses in particular on the application of insights from institutional economics, in a multidisciplinary approach, in which technology, policy and economics are interlinked.
Aad Correljé will focus in particular on the geological characteristics of unconventional gas, the extraction of the gas, the nature of the environmental problems involved in its extraction, and the possible economic and geopolitical consequences of the large-scale availability of shale gas in the US, Europe and Asia.

Speaker(s)

Dr Aad F. Correljé, Associate Professor Section Economics of Infrastructures - Faculty of Technology, Governance and Management TU Delft

Location

Hall centre Prinsenhof

Hoofdstraat 43, 5683 AC Best

Organiser

Region South

Name and contact details for information

ir. Gerard van Vucht, t: (040) 252 84 53 or via the e-mail address below:

g.vucht@gmail.com