E-MAIL
This can be concluded from a number of recent developments. The Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad published a story in which they made clear that there is a revolution ongoing with regard to the way natural gas is won, which leads to a surplus of this gas for a long period in stead of a shortage. Under development are ways to win this gas in an economical way from stony layers in the earth, which till now could not be explored economically, like for example shale gas. The result is an enormous increase of the volume of natural gas that can be won. For a country like China it would mean an increase of gas reserves to 285 years, based on the current annual use, in stead of reserves for some 30 years.
For most parts of the world these new exploration methods mean a drastic increase of the natural gas reserves – for the United States for example till the end of this century. For the Asian-Pacific region the new reserves will be sufficient for 66 years. Compared with the foreseen development of the future oil supply it leads to an increasing worldwide exploration of alternate fuels, particularly in countries which are road-transport-reliant. The Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia branch recently held its third Gaseous Fuels Technology Conference in Melbourne to debate the way ahead for the abundant supply of gaseous fuels.
The Australian ELGAS energy supplier told the conference that Australia’s abundant gas reserves place it in a unique situation to provide world leadership in moving to a gaseous fuels strategy, to replace its reliance on imported oil and finished products for road transport, and allowing Australia to become self sufficient.
The future of transportation in Australia will require rapid and large scale development of an unconventional fuels sector, a sector in which shale to liquids can and should play a major role, together with bio fuels, biodiesel, coal to liquids and gas to liquids. The technology for responsible development of shale to liquids exists. The economic imperative to focus on Australia’s abundant gaseous fuels was summarised simply by the Natural Gas Vehicle Association: “At USD 150 a barrel and a USD 0.70 cents exchange rate for the Australian dollar, we will spend AUD $30 billion a year. Can we afford that?”