Natural gas demand on the rise

Natural gas will play an increasingly important role in meeting these challanges. The International Energy Agency estimates the demand for oil will grow 20 per cent by 2015 whereas gas demand is exepected to increase 31% per cent, or 2.5% per annum, over the same period. At BP this shift to gas can be seen in the company's portfolio, where gas now represents around 40% of the company's resources. BP is now one of the world's largest producers and marketers of gas.

'Here in the Middle East, which contains 40% of the world's gas reserves, we are witnessing a similar shift towards the development of gas, not only for export, but to fuel the rapidly growing economies of the region',

explained David Dalton, BP Chief Representative, Abu Dhabi.

'To meet this positive shift, BP has invested substantially in research and technology developments in order to help unlock new gas supplies and deliver them safely and reliably to our customers locally and around the world. These new supplies are often sour and contained within difficult, tight reservoirs, requiring the application of innovative new technologies to produce efficiently,' Dalton concluded.

Natural gas as the cleanest fossil fuel makes an enormous contribution to the production of clean energy, and is an important part of the solution to the problem of CO2 emissions, but not sufficient by itself. Tony Meggs, BP Group Vice President of Technology, describes BP's vision of a more sustainable future in which fossil fuels are converted into hydrogen and CO2. 'The hydrogen can then be used to fuel clean power stations while the CO2 is injected in the subsurface to enhance recovery from existing oil fields. In BP we call this concept the hydrogen power station and have recently launched a new business to turn this concept into commercial reality on a world-wide scale.' Explained Meggs.

Gastech opens at the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Centre next Monday and is hosted by ADNOC and Dolphin Energy.