Nick Snow
Washington Editor
It may well have been David L. Goldwyn's last public address as special envoy for international energy affairs at the US Department of State.
His last day there came a few days after his Jan. 11 remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Institute for International Studies, where he responded to a wide range of questions following his prepared remarks.
A surprising number dealt with hydraulic fracturing and natural gas production from tight shale formations. Worldwide interest in US development policies is significant and growing, Goldwyn indicated.
"The first point is that you have to have safe practices for natural gas drilling, period. Most of the questions I've encountered deal with drilling, and not hydraulic fracturing itself," he said.
"There are states, such as Pennsylvania, which have been dealing with this. There are others, such as New York that have not," Goldwyn said.
Unlike the US, where resource development usually involves private landowners, land in most overseas countries is controlled by the government, which puts it in a better position to enact regulations, he said.
This especially matters in developing nations, where oil and gas development may be viewed in terms of economic growth and water resources nevertheless need to be protected, he explained.
Shale differences
"The funny thing about shale, as opposed to traditional oil and gas, is that you can tell quickly whether you have that kind of formation, and Europe apparently has a lot of it," Goldwyn said.
"But you don't know, until you start drilling, whether it's oil-bearing or gas-bearing shale, whether it's a tight formation, or whether it has other significant characteristics," he said, adding, "So it would be possible for countries to generate investment, but its specific characteristics wouldn't be known until producers began to drill."
Water issues
Water is the major issue, and a big part of the State Department's shale gas initiative, he said.
"If you can use nonpotable water, that's terrific but you still have disposal challenges. You also use an enormous amount of energy to move water. There's a great deal of synergy between water and energy issues," he said.
Goldwyn also said the recent Leviathan natural gas discovery off Israel's coast could lead to closer examinations of other potential offshore resources in neighboring countries.
"What will happen to these resources remains to be seen. The Israeli government hasn't decided whether the gas will be used domestically, or if it will be exported," he said.
"The contributions to the European market would depend on economics and who would be willing to pay for a pipeline across the Mediterranean," he said.
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