Dr. Nimir Elbashir, professor of petroleum and chemical engineering and chair of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University at Qatar and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Gas and Fuels Research Center (GFRC), along with Dr. Arturo Jiménez Gutiérrez, a professor of Chemical Engineering and Researcher at Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Mexico in the Department of Chemical Engineering, co-hosted and co-led a Monetizing Shale and Natural Gas workshop on March 13-14, 2019 in Celaya, Mexico.
Partnering with the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Gas and Fuels Research Center, the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Mexico, Elbashir and Gutiérrez brought together representatives from government organizations, future academic partners and stakeholders, and the private sector to create worldwide partnerships in shale gas monetization.
With the prevalence of natural and shale gas in the United States and Mexico, the workshop introduced participants to monetization opportunities, challenges, research needs, and funding opportunities.
The workshop was funded by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Global Partnerships Internal Grants seed funding, which was provided to support the development of partnerships with universities and research institutions globally.
During the workshop, Elbashir presented a brief lecture on Shale Gas Monetization and discussed how Qatar has monetized natural gas in recent years, including the lessons and insights learned, in order to assess and identify the challenges and opportunities in the exploration of monetizing shale gas in the U.S. and Mexico. Additional routes for the conversion of shale gas into value-added chemicals and fuels were discussed.New lines of communication were created during the workshop. Participants are already making headway toward the development of new strategies for success in both the U.S. and Mexico.