Our newest Rotarian, Roger Marsh, was our guest speaker last week. Roger studied at, and qualified from, Manchester University with a Degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. His work included the measurement of various rock properties to determine the extent and type of gas or fluids in potential oil and gas wells.
Roger provided a comprehensive and highly informative presentation covering oil exploration, oil components, renewable energy sources and alternative fuels for motor vehicles.
Amongst other things, Roger showed us where oil deposits are located in the earth’s structure and locations around the world. He explained the different types of oil rigs for various situations/locations from the older to newer ‘technology’ rigs. He also described an oil well and showed the use of various types and sizes of bits for different rock characteristics and the means for accessing oil in the rock.
Roger informed us that engineering calculations are made to determine the size of a field and this information is sent to the oil exploration accountants who determine the economic viability of a potential well. He went on to say that coal, oil and gas deposits contain unwanted components including mercury, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur, cadmium, and carbon dioxide.
Roger spoke about renewable energy resources and related that NZ’s energy supply is close to 80% renewable energy, 13.2% gas, 7.6% wind farms, 0.45% solar energy, and 0.07% coal plus small amounts of bio-energy. He also explained the ‘pump storage’ process as proposed for Lake Onslow to store surplus power.
Roger concluded with electric vehicles (EV’s), their advantages and disadvantages. He related that research is ongoing with new battery technology ahead re battery weight, the life of each charge, and battery life span. He also informed us about the potential of Hydrogen as a fuel with its much higher energy (power) level i.e. x2.5 that of petrol and x3.0 that of diesel.
