Natural gas is the way forward

Massive shale gas reserves in British Columbia’s Horn River Basin and Montney Basin (not to mention the discoveries in eastern Canada and the United States) is bringing back awareness to the potential of natural gas as a clean and affordable alternative to oil. The key advantage to natural gas is that it is a clean, highly efficient burning fuel which provides the benefit of increased fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs and significantly lower CO2, NOx and greenhouse gas emissions.  Fortunately for Canada there is lots of it – especially in northeast British Columbia.  The BC goverment estimates the Horn River and Montney basins contain more then 69 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

As recession concerns continue and governments look to stimulate the economy, investment in those sectors that provide long term employment, long term royalty revenues and move us closer to a cleaner greener environment should be of high priority. BC’s shale gas industry delivers on all accounts. The Oil and Gas sector became BC’s number one resource in the province generating more then $2.7 billion in 2008 land lease sales, and  “… could yield over $37 billion in provincial royalty revenue, enough to fund the Ministry of Environment for over 130 years,” according the BC governments recent speech from the throne. So there is an absolute pay back on the investment with many economic and environmental benefits.

The BC government has fortunately made natural gas a priority in their recent speech from the throne. However, there is lots of work to be done before the benefits can be realized on a large scale. A new royalty program to encourage research, exploration and development as well as needed investment in support infrastructure. So while Premier Stelmach of Alberta has shot himself in the foot at the worst possible time by increasing royalties, Premier Campbell appears be making the right moves by providing further incentives and investing into the sector.

Terasen Gas has long promoted natural gas as an alternative to gasoline and diesel. Most recently Terasen imported two Honda Civic NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle) for demonstration purposes, giving one of the Civic NGV to BC’s Environment Minister Barry Penner. Honda states that the Civic NGV has the cleanest internal combustion engine in the world, with 50% to 80%  lower nitrogen and sulphur oxide emissions and 25% less carbon dioxide than its gasoline version.

But while giving a NGV to the BC environment minister may generate some short lived media attention it does not address one of the remaining pieces to moving natural gas forward and broadly integrating it into the transport energy grid.There are only 11 natural gas refueling stations in the entire mainland. None of which appear to be strategically placed on the main commuting routes for non-commercial use. In order to gain public support and encouarge people to buy NGV cars like the Honda Civic we need to strategically place refueling stations on major commuting routes.

In the meantime, commercial vehicles are the first and best opportunity for converting vehicles from gas and diesel to natural gas. Terasen provides grants for natural gas converstion (both commerical and personal) as well as working with loca gas  compression companies to install refueling stations on site for commercial fleets. In the USA, individuals can acquire and install personal refueling stations.

Natural gas is not the only solution in solving the energy needs in a environmentally responsible manner. It is however one contributing solution. And it is the most practical and realistic to bring to fruition in the shortest period of time. The technology and resource is there. The future many argue is with hydrogen fuel cells. So here is another key point. Natural gas is the number one feedstock for producing hydrogen. By investing into natural gas including distribution in mass with more refueling stations and infrastructure, natural gas could provide the functional infrastructure to produce hydrogen on site by reforming pipeline natural gas.

Natural gas is the way forward.