More gas doesn't mean cheaper bills
October 16, 2007 at 11:07 am
One accident in the North Sea in June 2007 caused ripples of problems for the natural gas industry and sent its economy into a spiralling mess. The ferocious winds and torrential rains the UK endured this summer were always going to cause a serious threat to the rigs and the transportation vessels in the already wild North Sea. A ship’s anchor came loose and violently swung into a major gas pipeline called Central Area Transmission System (CATS) which is a vital gas route for the UK. The entire pipe-line had to be shut-down.
Principally damaged by this accident was BP, who estimated the cost of the damage to be nearly £20 million each month. Although natural gas is in fairly good supply in the lakes of the North Sea, the UK still look to countries with a plentiful supply, such as Russia, to import gas on huge cargo ships. The accident meant it became more reliant on this than ever but also meant that the price of the gas soared higher than ever before.
It prompted the UK gas industry to make massive advancements in the pipelines and the digging in the North Sea. Two Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) were almost immediately put into construction. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the prices will be lower though. This will depend on our climate here in the UK and the length and harshness of the winter, coupled with the importing rates and also the necessity for that import.
Now the CATS pipeline is fully operational again and the waters have calmed, the prices are at the lowest they have been for months. However, what the price will remain at will depend on a number of factors, not least the weather.
A spokesman for Centrica, the owners of British Gas, said “We’ve already cut our prices by a considerable substantial margin. Unless next winter’s prices do drop off significantly, I don’t think we’ll be looking at any future price cuts.”
Getting the most from your central heating
October 9, 2007 at 11:08 am
With the weather turning chilly, many of us are switching on our central heating for the first time this autumn. Last year, just over 20% of householders in the UK turned on their heating at the beginning of October, and only 4% of us were hardy enough not to have done so by the start of November.
However, if you have not had your system serviced regularly, you could be in for a nasty surprise. Not only will you be left shivering whilst you wait for the repairman to fit you in, but when he does arrive, you could be presented with a hefty bill. And that’s not to mention the safety risks which face you if you neglect your boiler.
Almost a third of all boilers break down within six years of having them installed. Despite this, almost three-quarters of us don’t bother paying out for emergency cover. Barely half of us bother having our boiler serviced each year, and a scary 20% of us are taking our lives in our hands by never having it serviced.
There are all sorts of service contracts out there, and there is absolutely no need to stick to your gas supplier, so it is well worth shopping around for a good deal. Contracts will normally cover not only your boiler and controls, but also your radiators and thermostats. Some include an annual inspection or service, and often within each organisation, it is possible to have different levels of cover, according to how much you wish to spend.
With some contracts costing less than £10 a month, it does not take great mathematical skills to work out that it can be a good investment. Plumbers’ costs vary greatly, according to where you live, but if you are a Londoner you can expect to pay over £76 an hour. Have one out for an hour or two and before you take the cost of parts into account, you have recouped your annual maintenance charge. The average cost nationwide of having your Main Heat Exchanger repaired is £468, with a radiator repair averaging £201.44 and even a thermostat repair costing an average of £88.99.
Having your boiler serviced annually, not only reduces the risk of it letting you down in the middle of winter, or, more dangerously, causing carbon monoxide poisoning, but it can also improve energy efficiency, saving you money. Other ways of saving on your fuel bills include turning down your thermostat, turning off radiators in rooms that are not used and installing a more efficient boiler, especially if your current one is not a condensing model. Although it can cost from £1500 to have a new boiler installed, it can save the average household from £120 to £240 per year on fuel bills.
Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer for a very good reason. In order to avoid putting yourself at risk, you should make sure that chimneys and air vents never become blocked and that there is adequate ventilation around any fuel-burning device.
For the first time power is created from mine gas
October 5, 2007 at 3:12 pm
A breakthrough technique has been created by an engineering team led by UK and Australian mining company BHP Billiton which could cause radical improvements in the way we extract gas from mines and use it for energy. Research on the methane gas produced when mining is often dangerous to the drillers and engineers but the company have managed to use it their benefit to generate electricity.
Seven years of research from BHP Billiton and Megtec Systems has now been properly tested and proven a success. The process has meant the construction of huge power faculties around the mines. The low methane concentrations in the mines are converted to carbon dioxide and water vapours. This is then converted into electrical power fed into generators.
During coal mining, methane gas is emitted. It can be dangerous for both humans in the immediate effect and for the environment on a long term scale. However, this research has been able to use the methane gas, oxidise it under a low-concentration, cut these harmful emissions and even store the gas to generate power.
The plant at the West Cliff colliery in New South Wales, Australia, is expected to be able to generate up to 5.0 Mega Watts of electricity each year. It is also estimated that this new process will also reduce greenhouse gases by up to an impressive 250,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
An MP for New South Wales, Morris Iemma, commented by saying, “This facility will make a significant contribution to greenhouse gas reduction in New South Wales, and I applaud the ingenuity of BHP Billiton and its technology providers Megatec Systems AB.” The project has been part-funded by The Australian Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program, providing 6 million Australian dollars to the companies involved. If the project proves to be a success, then it might not be long before other environment agencies around the world give a helping hand too.
The North Sea good for gas until at least 2040
October 2, 2007 at 9:52 am
When the Scottish equivalent of the Beverley Hillbillies struck liquid gold in the North Sea in the late 1960s, the UK’s oil and gas supply seemed as safe as the Saudis’. The lives of thousands of people living in much of the north-east of Scotland were hugely affected by the discovery, a change which would be long lasting. Employment opportunities sprang up at the same speed as the oil and gas being pumped, and almost overnight, Aberdeen harbour expanded and modernised so much that it is barely recognisable to those who knew it before the 1960s.
The production of up to 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day was a great boon to the UK’s economy. The price of these barrels, however, rose steeply and in 1981 it peaked at an exorbitant $40 a barrel. This has since fallen, but the demand and dependence on the fields certainly has not.
The Department for Trade and Industry produces an annual report on the oil and natural gas reserve and in the last few years, the remaining oil supply is said to be around a quarter of the original total found, and for gas it’s just under a half. This may not seem particularly drastic but it is only about 40 years since the discovery of North Sea gas.
A recent study by scientists at Aberdeen University has indicated that oil and gas stocks will last the UK until at least 2040. The estimated figure for the amount of ‘Barrels of Oil Equivalent’ (BOE), which is the unit for the approximate energy released by one barrel of crude oil, is around 20 million for this period.
For many years to come, the energy companies will continue to fund work on searching and digging for new fields, but at a great cost. The skills that the UK companies and their workers have rapidly acquired, have led to a flourishing export trade around the world.
Natural Gas is the largest energy source in the UK, and for that reason the UK is the fourth largest producer in the world with around 200 offshore fields. Out of all the “Western” countries, only the UK and Canada, produce their own gas supply. The decline of gas in the North Sea is a natural consequence when it is extracted. The pressure is the key to mining gas and that pressure peaks when it is first dug and then gradually weakens over the years. Additional pressure can be applied to the fields but at great cost. Unlike oil though, gas has many more years left in the North Sea.
The oil and natural gas stocks in the North Sea will be touted as being in short supply, whilst little is done to exploit modern sources of renewable energy. There is not, however, an urgent need for a back-up plan since gas certainly has at least another 75 years of drilling left in the North Sea alone. Even when the North Sea gas supply does finally run dry, areas for new supplies offshore are all quite local to the UK, with many around the Netherlands and Scandinavia for example. After that there are plenty of fields in the Middle East, (provided they have not been sabotaged by then). It would, however, be advisable to keep plans for the future firmly on the agenda.
