The 27th World Gas Conference (WGC) was held in Washington D.C. from June 25 to June 29. The World Gas Conference is held every three years in the country holding the Presidency of the International Gas Union (IGU). This year’s event had the theme “Fueling the Future” and promoted the IGU’s key objectives of raising the voice of natural gas while offering timely updates. There were 12,000 participants in attendance. There was also a 40,000 square meter exhibition showcasing more than 350 companies. WGC 2018 marks the first time that this event was held in a country that is both the world’s largest gas consumer and gas producer, and for whom the latest data show a record breaking size of its gas resource base.
WGC 2018 hosted over 600 of the industry’s most senior speakers from all over the world, including U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and CEOs from global companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum, BP, Total, ConocoPhillips and Shell. A roundup of some takeaways from the WGC courtesy of POLITICO Inside Report is below.
In his welcome, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said that technological advances have allowed the U.S. to produce energy "more cleanly and efficiently, more abundantly and affordably" than anyone a few decades ago could have imagined,” singling out the nation's "equally astounding miracle in natural gas production." He also does not expect the President’s import tariffs to affect the build out of U.S. natural gas infrastructure. *
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee blamed environmental advocates and some states for attempting to block pipeline construction across state lines. "Building pipelines across state lines should not be more difficult than building across transnational boundaries, but often that has been the case."*
Jim Muschalik, president of ExxonMobil's LNG market development said that in regard to U.S. LNG investment, room doesn't exist for all the companies that have already filed export applications with the federal government. "I agree there's a gas renaissance with production and the outlook is very robust in the U.S.," Muschalik said. "But when we look around the world ... our view is that not all the projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast will be built. They won't be able to compete. They're far from the primary markets, and there are opportunities that will serve those markets that are closer."*
Jason Bordoff, the founding director at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, said the massive amount of gas production that will flood the market means companies will need new U.S. export facilities to sell off the extra volume. "If you look at the amount of just associated gas that is going to be coming out of the Permian once some of these pipeline bottlenecks are resolved, that's a huge amount of gas. We need to be able to put it on the water and access the global market," he said.*
* Source: POLITICO Inside Report