Golden age of gas can make a return | The National

Golden age of gas can make a return | The National:

"“Natural gas is poised to enter a golden age,” said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2012. In 2014, it said the golden age would spread to China. But so far the gas industry is facing instead an age of lead. Prices are low, demand is short and investors in both production and gas power face heavy losses.

As the IEA said, gas meets the three “A”s – abundant, affordable and acceptable. New gas is being found and developed everywhere from North American shale fields, to giant liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Australia, to huge finds off the coasts of East Africa and Egypt. Gas prices have slumped – Asian LNG import prices, which averaged above $16 per million British thermal units last year, have fallen even more sharply than oil, to around $7.45, with Goldman Sachs seeing them at $4.75 by 2019. And gas is cleaner than oil and coal, while gas-fired power plants are simple and quick to build.

In North America, the golden age has been reality for several years. Booming shale production and low prices have boosted US consumption by 17 per cent since 2009, driving out coal. The US petrochemical industry has revived, and the country should start its first LNG exports in January."



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