Natural gas industry urged to focus on the narrative in addressing energy transition

Natural gas' future depends in part on messaging, a BP executive said May 19 in a nod to the industry to better explain the realities of meeting global energy demand amid expected population growth.

Touting new initiatives to capture and store greenhouse gas emissions are good, said Orlando Alvarez, who heads BP Energy, BP's trading and marketing unit. So, too, is talking up efforts to quantify methane throughout the gas value chain.

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But those efforts should not be a substitute for emphasizing the role that gas must continue to play, he said during a webinar that examined the economic, environmental, and policy issues facing natural gas and its role in the energy mix in the years to come. Alvarez pointed out that hydrocarbons remain part of BP's long-term strategy even as the integrated major plans to reduce oil and gas production by 40% over the next 30 years.

"It's making sure that natural gas is in the narrative and it's not left out," Alvarez said.

The International Energy Agency recently published a global roadmap to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The plan calls for dramatic reductions in the supply of oil and natural gas, in tranches through 2030 and then 2050.

During a summit sponsored by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, Fatih Birol, IEA's executive director, said May 19 that governments will need to take a strong policy stand with the fossil fuel industry if they are serious about meeting their carbon- reduction targets.

"They also need to say, 'You investor, be careful if you are investing in a technology which is working against our fight on climate change. You take a big risk to lose money there,'" Birol said. "If this can be done, No. 1, this will be a very important signal."

During the separate future of gas webinar, Alvarez and other panelists took issue with some of IEA's global recommendations, which include no additional investment in new oil and gas fields as of this year and no more sales of cars that use internal combustion engines as of 2035.

Better explaining the concerns with how such ideas may be unrealistic should be part of the natural gas industry's messaging, Alvarez said.

"We have to make our voices heard," he said.