PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The CEO and MD of Australian oil and gas major Woodside, Peter Coleman, has urged the natural gas sector to demonstrate that it is part of a lower-carbon future, and a viable alternative to coal.
“We may feel superior that our product, as the cleanest burning fossil fuel, can displace coal, delivering a net reduction in global emissions.
“Indeed the International Energy Agency calculates that coal-to-gas switching has saved around 500-million tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2010. But this won’t appease those who oppose all fossil fuels. It's on us, as an industry, to demonstrate that we are cleaning up our act, reducing methane emissions and reducing flaring to an absolute minimum,” Coleman told delegates at Gastech, in Houston.
Coleman said that it would only take one ‘cataclysmic’ weather event in the developed world attributed to climate change, for governments to act in a way that industry might not be ready for.
He noted that the two persuasive reasons why the natural gas industry needed to get serious about reducing emissions, the first of which was that the world needed a sustainable energy path.
“For the sake of future generations, for the sake of the planet, we need to find a way to deliver extra energy with fewer emissions. If we wait to see if the scientists are right or not, it will be too late.”
Coleman said that it also made business sense to reduce emissions, as consumers were increasingly demanding lower-emissions energy.
“If we don’t heed those demands, we will be left behind,” he said, pointing out that in order to be credible, the natural gas industry needed to be prepared for third parties to review the emission reductions that were claimed.