The Natural gases....

Lots of talk over the last few months all centering on gas. Is Natural Gas (Methane or CH4) a transitionary fuel? Can we certify it as clean? How do we 'clean' it and how do we ensure we do not waste it??

I have recently been reading Dan Yergin's book entitled 'The New Map'....as an aside, for all us energy nuts, it is a fantastic read and one I am still 'musing'....and yet to finish given its depth and my inability to read fast and retain the message :) There is great talk of how the USA specifically positioned itself as a LNG world giant based on the shale revolution. Politics aside this positions the USA as one of the great energy providers of this century and all came about from the discovery of fracking and shale production. You couple this with the gas that is now not available to the west from Russia and a shift in the Middle East to more gas to supplement oil and you see how important gas is going to be over the coming years....let's also face facts....fossil fuels are here to stay for our lifetime and probably coming generations, the trick therefore is how do we make them cleaner and not hide from the fact that they do damage society as we know it today.

So, let's talk about 'clean' or 'certified' natural gas. From an environmental perspective certified means 'verifying that the gas meets emissions standards, such as limits on greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants' (straight from ChatGPT by the way....). Put differently means we must prevent CH4/methane (as the largest consituent of natural gas) leakage and deal with biproducts such as CO2 along the processing chain. Points at which we can create CO2 are during production, combustion, flaring and processing/transportation.... dealing with the CO2 each point of the value chain is critical and will be the focus on another 'musing' in the coming weeks so let's park that there for now. In order to certify environmentally it is fundamental that we address this problem head on and aim for the cleanest gas we can get in order to ensure that our current industrial revolution and standard of living is maintained as well as creating prosperity for those who currently do not have the same infrastructure and luxuries as most of us reading this article.

So where does this lead us.... fundamentally our industry needs to find ways to decarbonize the energy sector and we need to support that through technology, investments and sheer will and determination. There are tons of great ideas, new start-ups, new technologies that are starting to bubble up and need nurture from industry, need a chance to be proven (in a very risk adverse environment...) and more importantly need airtime. As I start to get more 'plugged' into these communities I see opportunity....so come on.... let's seize it!