Summary of a Workshop on U.S. Natural Gas Demand, Supply, and Technology Looking Toward the Future (2003) / Chapter Skim
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5. Summary and Overarching Issues
5. Summary and Overarching Issues
Pages 77-82
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From page 77... ...
the need for new federal-private research and technology models, and (5) the significant decline in the number of graduate students enrolled in the geosciences and petroleum engineering who will be available to replace retiring workers over the next decade as the oil and gas industry faces the loss of well over half its technical workforce.
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From page 78... ...
The longer-term outlook for natural gas was considered less certain by some workshop participants and will depend on its affordability in the industrial sector, its competitive position for new power facilities, its reliability as a fuel supply, its price volatility, and the creation of a global transportation and storage network. In addition, some workshop participants believe that proposed and pending energy policies, such as the Bush Administration's Clear Skies Initiative, and international pressures for addressing carbon emissions and global climate change will further influence the demand for and price of natural gas.
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From page 79... ...
Total assessed gas resources for the United States have been increasing over the past 20 years despite production and the transfer of potential resource to proven reserves (Scott Tinker, University of Texas at Austin, personal communication, 2003~. As noted by some workshop participants, these assessments have increased as a result of (1)
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From page 80... ...
Some workshop participants thought that common keys to increasing mid- to long-term gas supplies from United States and Canadian basins include increased access to currently off-limits lands, more efficient and competitive fiscal and regulatory regimes, transportation infrastructure, and rapid technological improvements with emphasis on the development of unconventional reservoirs and conventional deepwater and frontier resources. Although industry research facilities formed the core of oil and gas technology development in the past, private-sector research and development funding has dropped markedly since the early 1990s, and most major oil companies and private research labs in the United States have closed (see Figure 1.4)
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From page 81... ...
Because long-term global trends are toward a natural gas economy and away from coal and oil (Richard Smalley, Rice University, personal communication, 2003) , the issue of meeting natural gas supply, in the face of decreased private and federal spending on technology, decreased graduate
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From page 82... ...
The benefits of natural gas as a bridge to a hydrogen future a more efficient fuel source, lower atmospheric emissions, less surface environmental disruption, broader global distribution, greater potential resource base when compared to coal and oil, are known. What is less well known, as shown by the presentations and open discussions at this workshop, are the reasonable bounds of resource estimates, the economics of the required global transportation infrastructure, the source of funding and manpower to support needed research and technology, economic and technological solutions to the natural gas storage issue, and future volatility in price and supply.
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