Natural gas is a hydrocarbon gas formed over thousands of years from the burying of dead plants and animals. The intense heat and pressure caused by the burying of this material triggers a reaction, which leads to the creation ofnatural gas, primarily methane1.
Natural gas is referred to as ‘unconventional’ if it relies on special or advanced production techniques to be extracted. This is due to the way the natural gas is deposited1.
Shale Gas
The term ‘shale gas’ refers to natural gas that is trapped underground in shale deposits. Shale is a fine-grained, very porous rock. While shale deposits have lots of empty spaces to store natural gas, these empty spaces are not well connected which makes extracting the trapped natural gas difficult[refrence number =2]
Tight Gas
Similar to shale gas, tight gas is natural gas that is trapped in a rock that does not allow the gas to easily move through it 3
Gas Hydrates
Gas hydrates are gas molecules that are encased in ice. These are naturally occurring structures that can be found in permafrost sediments in the Arctic, or buried in sediment deep under water4.
Coal Bed Methane
Whencoalforms, various gasses are created,including methane gas. This gas is absorbed into the buriedcoal, and is referred to ascoal bed methane which can only be extracted if the coal is depressurized5.
