Natural Gas

With the discovery of liquid natural gas on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, there comes the question of what next?

OK, first things first. There aren’t any ships that could make the journey to Titan, scoop up the methane or even fly by the outer edge of Jupiter’s atmosphere and scoop up methane that is found there. Or make the journey back.

Even now there could  engineers in some cubicle or R&D office in ExxonMobil, Chesapeake Energy or even Grey Wolf, working out the details for such an interplanetary project. Afterall, engineers solved the problem of drilling the deepwater regions of the world–so, somewhere an engineer may be having the time of his or her life with this challenge.

Titan, by a small historical quirk, might be even more off limits to E&P than offshore Florida or California.

The Moon Treaty was finalized in 1979 and is similar to the one set up for the sea in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.  By Jan. 1 of this year, it has been ratified by 13 nations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Kasakhstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Phillipines and Uruguay. France, Guatemala, India and Romania have signed it, but have not ratified it.

Missing from the list are all the nations that are involved with space flight, or have announced their outer worldly plans: the U.S., Russia,  China, Japan, India and Iran. Yes, Iran has announced it has a space program–but it hasn’t gotten off the ground, so to speak.

The treaty:

• Bans all exploration and uses of celestial bodies without the approval or benefit of other states.
• Requires that the secretary-general of the U.N. must be notified of all celestial activities (and discoveries developed thanks to those activities).
• Declares all states have an equal right to conduct research on celestial bodies.
• Declares for any samples obtained during research activities, the state that obtained them must consider making part of it available to all countries/scientific communities for research.
• Bans altering the environment of celestial bodies and requires states must take measures to prevent accidental contamination.
• Bans any state from claiming ownership over any territory of celestial bodies.
• Bans any ownership of any extraterrestrial property by any organization or person, unless that organization is international and governmental.
• Requires all resource extraction and allocation be made by an the U.N.

Still, without the major space powers not signing the treaty, Titan might be protected or it might not be protected. Look for space law to become a growing profession over the next 20 years or so as companies and nations rush to space–not for tourism or military purposes, but in the search for natural resources such as methane or ethane.

Stay tuned. More to come. This story is a long way from being over.

–John A. Sullivan, News Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, www.OilandGasInvestor.com, jsullivan@hartenergy.com

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