Natural gas is a bridge to sustainable energy in the future
Kuala Lumpur: Natural gas is a bridge to a sustainable energy system in the future and there is a need to put research on the alternatives such as hydrogen and biofuel, said George H B Verberg, president of International Gas Union.
"Natural gas is not the panacea for all the energy problems as it is also a fossil fuel and not perfect. You need all the options of energy to serve mankind," he told a media briefing after delivering a keynote address at the Asia Pacific Natural Gas Vehicles Association (ANGVA) conference and exhibition here Wednesday.
The development of renewable energy such as biofuel and hydrogen will continue, he added.
However, he said natural gas has a lot of good characteristics which made it a preferred fuel, and it has a clear advantage over the others.
He added that power was expected to lead the increase in gas demand from 36 percent in 2002 to 47 percent in 2030.
He said Europe had decided that transportation sector should do away with diesel and gasoline, and natural gas should have 10 percent of market share in 2020 from almost nil today.
He said the key challenge for the industry was how to keep pace with supply as at the consumer end, the demand was there.
He said the International Energy Agency had made known that investment in the upstream activities of the oil and gas sector was falling below the level of what it should be in order to meet the projected energy demand.
He attributed this to several reasons such as access difficulty to reserves and business risk.
He said there was also a shortfall of engineering companies which could build the liquefaction plants and shortage of experienced naval officers who could operate huge liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers.
"There are 114 LNG tankers being built now in South Korea which need experience naval officers, not young graduates," he said and added that this was important if one was to get the supply on time to the consumers. - Bernama