reliance on fossil fuels for economic development

• oil and natural gas need be heated and compressed and then break down into oil and gas, for example Saudi Arabia is a top 5 oil producing country but not top 5 consuming country whereas China is showing the mismatch between supply and demand
• 4 types of energy pathways are pipelines, transmission lines, shipping routes and road/rail
• an example is Keystone XL Pipeline that goes from Canada to Nebraska, a problem is it goes through many countries so requires trust
• 5 ways energy pathways are disrupted?

  • natural hazards
  • piracy
  • chokepoints - narrow passageways
  • time - wear and tear
  • geopolitical conflict
• the case study for disruption of energy pathways is Russian gas to Europe due to geopolitical conflict
• 4 types of unconventional fossil fuel energy resources are tar sands, oil shale, shale gas and deep water oil
• the case studies are:

  • Canadian Tar Sands
  • USA Fracking
  • Brazilian deep water oil
• deep water oil is found under ocean floor, deep ocean rigs are used to get them

  an advantage of this is that jobs are created

  a disadvantage of this is that oil spills are more likely - harming marine life
• Brazilian deep water oil

  • deep oilfield water was found in the Santos Basin in 2007, its around 270km offshore and 2km deep making it very expensive and difficult to drill in comparison to shallow water
  • Brazil since has started to drill in even deeper waters for oil, meaning platforms are even further away and longer pipelines are needed further increasing the cost of oil for consumers
• hydraulic fracking is used to extract natural gas from shale, high pressure fluid pumped into rock causing it to crack and released gas is collected - shale gas

  an advantage is energy reserves are increased

  a disadvantage is it can cause groundwater contamination
• USA fracking - shale gas

  • fracking has been recorded in over 30 states since 2005 and mainly in Texas and Colorado
  • when shale gas is detected large amounts of vegetation is removed - causing habitat destruction and migration of wildlife
  • in 2014 3 billion gallons of wastewater created in Colorado and was highly toxic - raising concerns for drinking water
  • natural gas has overtaken coal as largest energy source in USA but causes increased air pollution due to methane being released during fracking
• tar sands contains low grade oil known as bitumen and is extracted by mining the sediment and separating the oil within it, (takes about 2 tonnes of tar sand to make 1 barrel of oil) mining is large scale.

  an advantage is it makes sense for countries with economic infrastructure based on fossil fuels to exploit the source while it lasts

  a disadvantage is open-cast mining leaves large areas of ground open and leaves scars - affecting plant growth
• Canada holds the largest tar sands reserve in the world
• Canada has been mining tar sands since

  1967
• Tar sands extraction


  Only viable when price of oil is high as it is very expensive to extract oil from tar sands
• Tar sands extraction process

  Produces contaminated wastewater which can affect already ecologically sensitive landscapes - making new vegetation growth impossible and aquatic life killed when wastewater enters water courses
• Over 400,000 people are directly employed from tar sands in Canada
• Tar sands extraction in Canada

  Has caused groups of indigenous people in Athabasca to move out of their area causing decline in their cultural ways of life
• some rock contains bitumen and when placed under pressure and heated - shale oil is released