Page 18 - Gi flipbook - October 2018

Industry investment gears to gas

average 2.5 per cent per annum
increase in seaborne LNG trade from FIGURE 3 Coping with changes to the gas mix
now to 2050. Many countries are
building facilities to import LNG. In Extent to which repondents think onshore pipeline projects currently in development are adaptable
2005, only 15 imported it; that number enough to cope with potential long-term changes in the gas mix (eg. greater variety of calorific values,
has more than tripled since. hydrogen and biogas).
In a lesson from history, companies
that anticipated the demand for LNG,
and acted on it, now outcompete rivals
in the world’s fastest-growing energy
segment. “If we hadn’t taken a long-
term view, we’d never have got into the
LNG business, which took decades to
get to the scale it is today,” said Mark
Gainsborough, Executive Vice President
– New Energies at Shell, in an interview
for DNV GL’s 2018 Industry Outlook
research. “I suspect it will be the same
with the opportunities in the new
energy space.”
GAS DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS
PROMOTING NEW
DECARBONISED SOLUTIONS
Gas distribution networks, such as those
operated in the UK, the US, and the
Netherlands, need to demonstrate that
their infrastructure can play a key role in
the decarbonisation of energy, and are
actively developing solutions. Carbon-
neutral gas will be crucial to this
objective. It will drive changes including
the introduction into piped gas of a
wider range of gas sources, such as the
use of hydrogen and biogas.
For example, UK gas network
operator Northern Gas Networks has
launched a project to explore the
feasibility of converting the gas grid
for large cities such as Leeds from
natural gas to zero-carbon hydrogen1.
DNV GL is a primary partner in this
initiative, which will demonstrate shifting energy mix stand a strong
hydrogen’s potential to help the UK chance of success through the three
meet its 2050 climate change decades of significant change ahead.
obligations while also using existing As the energy transition unfolds, it
gas network infrastructure. is important not to lose sight of the
DNV GL’s research indicates that sector’s responsibility to address the
nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of energy trilemma: how to provide a
senior oil and gas professionals believe secure supply of sustainable and
that onshore pipeline projects affordable energy. As an energy
currently in development are carrier, gas is cheaper, and more
adaptable enough to cope with flexible than electricity, and we should
potential long-term changes in the gas maximise its benefits, while managing
mix, while 13 per cent disagree. Figure its carbon impact. ■
3 shows a marked difference of
opinion regionally. ■ Download a complimentary copy
of DNV GL’s 2018 Energy Transition
LONG-TERM VIEW Outlook at eto.dnvgl.com/2018
DNV GL’s research clearly shows that
companies see a strong role for gas in REFERENCES: 1. www.dnvgl.com/news/dnv-gl- DNV GL’s 2018 Energy Transition Outlook
the energy transition. Those who are primary-project-partner-in-northern-gas-networks- is an independent forecast of the world
actively planning and investing in the led-hydrogen-network-innovation-project-113691 energy mix in the lead-up to 2050

18

EnergyTransitionDNVGL.indd 3 20/09/2018 13:12