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To: VisionsOfSugarplums who wrote (121224)	5/30/2009 11:57:42 AM
From: jrhana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 206084

I read somewhere that this period of ultra low NG prices has actually been good for NG companies. It has forced them to develop super efficient technologies. <and then peak gas would still be in play on a long term basis> I imagine peak gas is decades or perhaps even centuries away. <Going forward, with recent production and reserve estimates coming from the Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus shale formations, among others, have vindicated Mr. Hefner’s testimony of decades ago. His contention was and is that “peak oil” does NOT mean “peak natural gas” and he has been proven correct - US and world natural gas supplies are abundant and can be relied upon by policymakers for 100 years. The government should recognize that natural gas is the only domestic fuel that can be scaled-up over the next decade in order to achieve significant reductions in the use of coal and foreign oil as well as significantly reducing CO2 and particulate emissions. Hefner presents energy policies to reestablish the industrial might of America by becoming the world leader in CNG vehicles and CNG refueling capabilities> Message 25669941 <In our view, the future is brilliant because of the significant gas endowment throughout the world that will last for several decades. And the bonus is that, as indicated in my reply to your previous question, natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel available, providing comfort, cleanliness and convenience to the user. Definitely a win-win combination for all parts involved.> and <.. I suspect that we, in industry and academia, have not done a good job in promoting the benefits of natural gas as compared with other fossil fuels. We are talking in here about the cleanest fossil fuel that can be burned; four atoms of hydrogen for one atom of carbon. An H/C ratio of 4:1. By way of comparison the average H/C ratio for oil is 2:1, for coal 0.5:1 and for wood and other agricultural residues 0.1:1. Thus the ratio provides a reasonable proxy to environmental quality, and shows that natural gas is more benign to the environment as compared with other fossil fuels and at the same time more convenient to the user. And the gas endowment in both countries is gigantic and will lapse for several decades. So we have to try hard to sell the So we have to try hard to sell the benefits of natural gas to policymakers and the public at large. There is an initiative to develop unconventional gas in the western energy corridor of the Rocky Mountain region of the northern US and Canada. I think this joint approach could become a very effective tool to accelerate the understanding of policy makers on the key role that natural gas will play in the energy future of both countries.> Message 25669950

To: VisionsOfSugarplums who wrote (121224)	5/30/2009 11:58:49 AM
From: miraje	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 206084

the US has a huge energy supply that is currently cheaper than oil on a BTU basis, that supplies jobs in the US via drilling etc Why not develop gas to liquid? That would allow utilizing the existing liquid fuel infrastructure. A quick online search revealed this (maybe a bit dated).. futurepundit.com Synfuels International Cuts Natural Gas To Liquids Cost Synfuels International claims they've found a way to cut the cost of converting natural gas to liquid fuels. A Texas company says that it has developed a cheaper and cleaner way to convert natural gas into gasoline and other liquid fuels, making it economical to tap natural-gas reserves that in the past have been too small or remote to develop. The company behind the technology, Dallas-based Synfuels International, says that the process uses fewer steps and is far more efficient than more established techniques based on the Fischer-Tropsch process. If this process works well it will drive up the price of natural gas as more natural gas gets used to produce liquid fuels for transportation. That will, in turn, reduce the desirability of natural gas for use in heating and electric power generation. A better way to convert natural gas into liquid fuels using small chemical plants would allow many smaller and/or remote natural fields to be tapped. For example, the natural gas on the northern slope of Alaska hasn't been exploited yet because the costs of building a natural gas pipeline to bring it down to the lower 48 states is quite high. A couple of pipelines are in early development. But a way to convert the Alaska natural gas to liquid form would allow the existing Alaska oil pipeline to move the liquid south. The article also mentions another start-up company, Gas Reaction Technologies, a spin-off from UC Santa Barbara, which claims its gas-to-liquid technology will work well for medium and small sized natural gas fields. If either of these companies substantially lowers the cost of gas-to-liquid that will undermine the rationale for the T. Boone Pickens proposal to shift more toward natural gas as a vehicle fuel. Why use natural gas directly when it can be converted to a far more convenient liquid form? But since the conversion itself uses energy natural gas converted to liquid fuel represents a loss of energy that would not occur if natural gas was directly burned in cars. I am skeptical that we'll ever see a big shift to natural gas for vehicle transportation. Liquid fuels are more convenient and use up less trunk space. Technological developments that cut costs for doing the natural gas-to-liquid conversion will provide a more convenient and therefore more valuable way to use natural gas. By Randall Parker at 2008 August 16 11:07 PM Energy Fossil Fuels \| TrackBack