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Natural gas energy supply: the real deal for America
America, let’s take an accounting of the latest instruments of facts that point to a fundamentally strong position in the United States for short- and long-term natural gas supply, as we debate our low-carbon energy future.
- The year-end 2008 Potential Gas Committee (PGC) report of estimated natural gas resources in the United States points to more than 1,836 trillion cubic feet of potential resource evaluated. It is the largest aggregate estimate presented by the PGC in 44 years.
- The Energy Information Administration just published their accounting for known reserves of natural gas, yesterday, October 30. The 245 Tcf reported is the largest volume ever identified by EIA, since they began keeping the reserves statistics in 1977. In addition, the volume of domestic gas production recorded in 2008 (20.5 Tcf), according to EIA, was the largest annual production number since 1974.
- Combining PGC Resources and EIA Reserves results in a volume of future supply of over 2,000 Tcf – 100 years or more of supply at current production levels.
- In the shorter-term, natural gas storage is at record levels and, in fact, the ability to store gas underground has grown, also.
These are not short-term phenomena. They are indications that natural gas is poised to serve a growing market of low-carbon fuel requirements.
America, this is the real deal.
Smart Guy Committee
By now, you have almost certainly heard about the Potential Gas Committee’s (PGC) announcement that the total natural gas resource base in the United States has increased by 39% compared to previous estimates. To say that the natural gas industry is pretty excited about the PGC report is a bit of an understatement.
But forget the natural gas industry for a second. Are you excited about this announcement? You probably should be.
Imagine that a highly regarded, independent group (let’s call them the “Smart Guy Committee”) made the following announcement:
The Smart Guy Committee (SGC) today released the results of its latest biennial assessment of the nation’s gasoline resources, which indicates that the United States possesses a total resource base of gasoline that is 39% larger than previously estimated. This is the highest resource evaluation in the Committee’s 44-year history… “The SGG’s year-end 2008 assessment reaffirms the Committee’s conviction that abundant, recoverable gasoline exists within our nation’s gas station storage tanks… The SGC cautioned, however, that the current assessment assumes neither a time schedule nor a specific market price for the discovery and production of future gasoline supply. “Estimates of the SGC are ‘base-line estimates’ in that they attempt to provide a reasonable appraisal of what we consider to be the ‘technically recoverable’ gasoline resource potential of the United States,” the SGC explained.
In other words, imagine that a respected, independent group announced that every gas station in the country just realized that they had almost 40% more gasoline in their storage tanks than they previously thought. Now, a lot of this gasoline may be located in storage tanks at abandoned gas stations, in depopulated rural areas, in storage tanks that are hard to get to or are sealed off, or in other places that may be difficult and/or expensive to pump into your car.
Still. This caveat, which is important, would not change the fact that if you operate one of the nation’s 136 million state-registered cars you would probably dance in the streets, since this supply situation is good news for you at the pump.
Well, about 65 million of you are residential natural gas consumers, and, surprise surprise, the “Smart Guy Committee” statement above is taken from the Potential Gas Committee Report, with “natural gas” changed to “gasoline.” The analogy is far from perfect, since producing natural gas is much more complicated and expensive than pumping gasoline at a filling station, but you get the idea. All of a sudden, the United States has almost 40% more of a critical energy resource that is clean burning and used by tens of millions of people.
So, are you excited?
Chris McGill discusses Potential Gas Committee report on OnPoint
Chris was on OnPoint this morning talking about the Potential Gas Committee report. OnPoint is a webcast program put out by Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E) which features in-depth interviews and analysis with energy and environmental policy leaders. OnPoint films and broadcast daily from E&E’s studios on Capitol Hill.
During the interview, Chris discusses the report and explains the large increase in supply estimates. He also discusses the significance of the report to the overall energy discussion and weighs in on the debate over hydraulic fracturing oversight. You can view the interview over at OnPoint.
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