Challenges to Development of Unconventional Oil and Gas

The author believes there is no other way to solve short and medium term energy problems than to place the fossil fuel energy, which currently accounts for more than 80% of primary energy, at the center of energy. To supply as much oil and gas as possible to Japan, Japanese government and petroleum related companies are trying to obtain concessions/equities for the development of petroleum including unconventional oil and gas all over the world. Recently, unconventional oil and gas attract attention as next generation energy, because of their vast amount of resources. A part of the unconventional oil and gas has been already produced on a commercial scale, while the development of some of them is still in the stage of research. This paper first gives an outline of unconventional oil and gas, followed by the introduction to the development/production methods and problems/challenges.