Scholar
lauds TT energy use
By Karl E. Cupid
The Trinidad & Tobago NewsDay
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
07 01 07
THIS
country was on Wednesday categorised as the “absolute
centre” of the Western Hemisphere’s
gas business sector and given the “thumbs
up” for utilising natural resources for the
benefit of the people.
In
fact, Nick Butler, director of Cambridge University’s
Centre for Energy Studies, who made these comments,
told the Tobago Gas Technology Conference, “I
think when the history is written of this period…a
period of huge inflow of funds to countries with
natural resources, that this country will be seen
as one of the rather small number of success stories
in having used those resources creatively for the
development of its people, rather than wasting
them.”
Speaking in the context of the establishment of
the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), Butler
prefaced the statement with the assertion that
the quality of education available to people would
be absolutely essential in determining the economic
success of any country in the 21st century.
Focusing
on the future of the international gas business
in his presentation – “Natural
Gas: The Challenges Ahead” – at the
conference at the Tobago Hilton, Butler warned
that the question of climate change as it relates
to gas emissions would be one of the major deciding
factors in the acceptance of natural gas as an
alternative energy source, globally.
He
stressed the whole “gas business” was
now a global one of enormous potential, but asserted
that the infrastructure for its growth was currently
quite inadequate. He added that this was particularly
so in the case of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Notwithstanding
this, he said that over the last three decades
it has been the fastest growing source
of fuel throughout the world, averaging a growth
of two and a half per cent annually since 1980. “It
is the latest phase of a long process of transition
in the international energy business,” he
asserted, recalling the era some 200 years ago
when more than 90 per cent of the world’s
energy supply came from the burning of wood.
This
changed to coals about 100 years ago and then
gradually moved to natural gas. As things
stand at present, he noted there was “certainly
the potential for that process of change in favour
of natural gas to continue (as) there was no shortage
of reserves.”
Butler
reported that according to the most authoritative
data there were 180 trillion cubic metres of gas
available worldwide in terms of proven reserves — “That’s
more than 60 years of production at current levels
of use, and reserves have not stopped growing!” He
said there has been a significant increase in demand
over the last few decades, but claimed that “despite
all that consumption, reserves are 80 per cent
higher than they were 20 years ago.”
Butler however noted that while natural gas had
the least negative impact in terms of emissions,
the reaction of countries to climate change must
be taken into consideration. He stressed this was
now a critical issue in many countries which were
now actively agitating for a reduction in gas emissions
in the whole context of global warming and its
negative impact on climate conditions.
He
asserted that the real focus on public policy
in this regard would dwell on the area of power
generation. “So you have the sector where
gas has (invariably) great future potential being
the sector where public policy is going to bear
down on emission!” Butler warned, therefore,
that there was a distinct possibility that one
could soon see an expansion in nuclear and renewable
forms of energy at the expense of gas. The Cambridge
Centre for Energy Studies director, meantime, emphasised
the need for instilling “renewed confidence” in
gas as a relatively safe source of energy.
The
Trinidad & Tobago NewsDay
Friday, June 15 2007
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©2007 The Trinidad & Tobago NewsDay. All
Rights Reserved.
