Beyond Oil: Chapters 3&4

I skimmed through chapter three because I wasn't able to follow the math of the Hubbert method, but I was able to somewhat understand the main concepts that Deffeyes was presenting. Chapter four was more comprehensible for my taste and I learned a great amount in the chapter. 

Things I learned:

-BTU=British Thermal Unit, enough heat to raise the temp of one pound of water by on degree fahrenheit.

-conventional sources of gas include solution gas (underground oil and gas dissolved in it separate into a froth of gas and oil as the pressure drops) gas caps (porous rock in some underground reservoirs contains more gas than the oil can dissolve so a separate 'gas cap' forms above the oil) the oil window (zone 7500 to 15000 feet) 

-I found it very interesting that gas flares of such intensity occur. I didn't realize that this process happened when gas or oil is produced. The first astronauts orbiting the earth found that the most prominent visible human effect was the gas flares in North Africa and the Middle East. I also discovered that methane is much more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. 

-Deffeyes talks about the possible introduction of widespread use of natural gas, for example to power cars. Deffeyes refers to the chicken-egg problem to describe the situation with natural gas, and says that because people will not buy cars powered by natural gas because filling stations don't exist, but filling stations don't exist because people do not buy cars powered by natural gas. Natural gas filling stations don't exist in the U.S. but are in service in Italy, New Zealand, and British Columbia. 

-Heat content determines the prices of different fossil fuels. 

-Unconventional sources of gas include swamp gas, coal bed gas, basin center gas, fractured shales and gas hydrates.