Japan’s First Shale Gas Discovery

I made my case that Shale gas will be the energy of the future which means this will become an international phenomenon (see here, here, and here)

I have also pointed out that Argentina and China have began to access Shale as with Israel’s recent major discovery.

This time it is Japan’s turn.

Japan’s baptism with Shale gas from Japan Times, (bold emphasis mine)

Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. has succeeded in extracting shale oil from the Ayukawa oil and gas field in Akita Prefecture, a first for Japan, company officials said Wednesday.

Japan is trying to diversify its energy sources and develop untapped resources following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Japan Petroleum, known as JAPEX, succeeded in obtaining crude oil by pumping hydrochloric acid into a shale rock layer about 1,800 meters deep to remove limestone that clogs cracks in the rocks, the officials said. It started drilling Monday.

Shale oil was confirmed after the extracted liquid substance was put into a centrifugal separator.

Interest in developing shale oil, or oil contained in deep underground shale rocks, has been growing globally, with a sharp increase in commercial production of shale oil and gas in the U.S

JAPEX said it will analyze the ingredients of the crude oil while preparing to dig a new oil well next business year, which starts April 1, and proceed with the drilling process.

The company estimates shale oil deposits at some 5 million barrels for the Ayukawa and neighboring oil and gas fields. For all of Akita, shale oil reserves are projected at 100 million barrels, worth nearly 10 percent of Japan's annual oil consumption.

This again gives evidence that geopolitical frictions from territorial disputes has hardly been about oil, gas or natural resources or about history. These are excuses. 

Territorial controversies are essentially about political smoke and mirrors

As I recently wrote,

War has always been used as opportunities to exploit society (through financial repression) and suppress internal political opposition in order to advance the interests of the ruling political class whose interest are interlinked with the politically favored banking class, the welfare and the warfare class.

The shale gas boom will ultimately expose such political charlatanism.

As a side note, beneficiaries of fossil fuels see Shale gas as a considerable competitive threat so they launch propaganda offensive against it through, for instance, the latest movie by Matt Damon "The Promised Land" has been financed by the United Arab Emirates

Notes the Heritage Fondation 

While left-leaning Hollywood often targets supposed environmental evildoers, Promised Landwas also produced “in association with” Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, according to the preview’s list of credits. A spokesperson with DDA Public Relations, which runs PR for Participant Media, the company that developed the film fund backingPromised Land, confirmed that AD Media is a financier. The company is wholly owned by the government of the UAE.

Expect more false evangelism from detractors of Shale gas and of the laissez faire capitalism from which Shale gas has been a product of.