Posted on 07/29/2015 11:48:31 AM PDT by thackney
New plants coming online are set to drive industrial natural gas growth forward by more than three percent in the next two years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in an analysis Wednesday.
Industrial facilities, which include methanol and fertilizer plants, consumed an average of 21.0 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas in 2014, up 24 percent from 2009. By the end of 2015, that figure is expect to rise by another 3.4 percent to an annual average of 21.7 billion cubic feet per day. In 2016, the EIA predicted another 3.9 percent gain to 22.5 billion cubic feet per day — a powerful bump in demand for the commodity.
Natural gas is widely used in the U.S. to make chemicals, to heat homes and to generate electricity.
Natural gas prices have collapsed from roughly $5-plus per million British thermal unit between 2000 and 2010 to less than $3.00 per million British thermal unit recently, as shale drillers unlocked massive amounts of the fuel from previously impermeable rock.
Industrial and other users of the fuel have stepped up plans to switch to natural gas as the fuel has become relatively cheaper. Much of the additional demand is expected to come from new industrial facilities coming online along the Gulf Coast.
In 2016, the EIA said three methanol plants are expected to come online in the region, using almost 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Methanol is often combined with other chemicals to make things such as plastics and paints. An additional 100 million cubic feet of demand for the fuel is expected to come from a nitrogen fertilizer plant coming online in 2016.
Outside of the Gulf Coast, the EIA has tracked new methanol plans in Washington and Oregon, where companies are hoping to export the chemical to China. Fertilizer plants have also popped up in the agricultural areas of Iowa, Indiana and North Dakota.
EIA's forecast of U.S. total natural gas consumption averages 76.5 Bcf/d in 2015 and 76.4 Bcf/d in 2016, compared with 73.5 Bcf/d in 2014.
Consumption growth in 2015 is largely driven by demand in the industrial and electric power sectors. EIA projects natural gas consumption in the power sector to grow by 12.9% in 2015 and then fall by 2.7% in 2016.
Low natural gas prices support increased use of natural gas for electricity generation in 2015. Industrial sector consumption increases by 3.3% in 2015 and by 3.9% in 2016, as new industrial projects come online, particularly in the fertilizer and chemicals sectors, and as industrial consumers continue to take advantage of low natural gas prices.
Natural gas consumption in the residential and commercial sectors is projected to decline in 2015 and 2016.
It should be a crime to make electricity from NG when we have so much coal. NG is MUCH more valuable to heat homes and commercial buildings and as a feedstock.
I would rather not have the government selecting what fuel I use. We have too much interference in the market place as it is.
If NatGas was so much more valuable, then it would me so much more expensive. It isn’t.
I enjoy reading About American Energy.
It is the Future.
I’ve always believed the lower rank fuels (coal, coke, etc) should be the first choice for power generation.
The quantity of gas we have at this moment, plus the administration’s position on CO2 and SO2 makes gas a better selection for now.
We do have some 300 years worth of recoverable coal. Maybe we’ll get back to it in some distant year.
To go along with my comments on another thread, our two NM Democrat senators (both radical environmentalists) have come across another natural gas bogeyman that will require industry to spend money on to resolve what essentially is a natural problem. Some satellite data taken a few years ago found a large methane spike in the four corners area. Immediately the environutters blamed it on the oil and gas companies and are gearing up to require lots of "remedial" action.
Unfortunately, there are lots of native fractures and seeps up there that release the gas. Some has been due to the coal gas extraction where gas released during production migrates to the surface through natural pathways. There is no way to mitigate this without shutting down production, which of course, is what they want. Impacts, according to the climate scientists, are more serious than CO2 as they claim methane is more of a potent greenhouse gas than CO2. These are the same folks that want to put gas recovery diapers on cows and otherwise prevent methane release from gas hydrates in the ocean and Alaskan tundra.
Without methane hydrates, that chart doesn’t come close to listing fossil fuels available.
The graph is probably not very accurate but the concept is. The fossil fuel period is/will be relatively short
Relative to anything that has meaning in using fuel?
So you're in favor of a "national energy policy" ?
As one smart guy said on CNBC...
China has national planning by mathematicians, scientists, and engineers...and the US has national planning by lawyers.
Both are destined to fail, but by definition we lose.
Or you could say relative to how long fire has be used, which some say is a million years.
You can also ignore the fossil fuel and frame it as how long has man used the steam engine, IC engine, and steam turbine.
Not sure I understand the chart.
Can you tell what it is saying ?
It says how much fossil fuel has been used up to 2011 and projects how will be used in the future.
Who published this ?
don’t really know, but there is credit at the bottom of the graphic, or you could to an exact phrase search of the title.
http://www.rmi.org/Get%20Involved
http://www.greengurus.co.uk/2009/07/amory-lovins-soft-energy-and-natcap.html
http://www.rmi.org/Content/Files/ReinventingFire_Appeal.pdf
The coal isn’t going anywhere. USA will be back on it in 100 years. For our lifetime we will be in the NG age...
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