Natural gas future

The London-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) is the second largest energy futures exchange in the world, listing futures contracts that represent the pricing benchmarks for two-thirds of the world s crude oil and the majority of middle distillate traded in Europe. IPE natural gas futures may also develop into an international benchmark as the European market develops larger sales volume. 

Futures Prices Natural gas futures contracts began trading on April 3, 1990, on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Sabine Pipe Line Company s Heniy Hub near Erath,... 

Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2006a). Natural Gas Futures Price (NYMEX) Natural Gas Navigator. United States Department of Energy. Available at http //tonto.eia.doe.gov. 

This percentage is so large because of the low energy needs and investment costs of natural gas. Future predictions show natural gas to remain as the main feedstock due to its reserves and opportunity costs, especially in developing countries [5]. The only exception is China, where coal- is the primary feedstock. 

There are large concentrations of proven reserves ia specific areas of the globe such as the Middle East, North America, and the Confederation of Independent States. Thus the future of natural gas, worldwide, is dependent on the flow of natural gas across international boundaries on a long-term basis. This future is also dependent on the maintenance of an economic balance between the price of oil and the price of natural gas. 

The mature Haber-Bosch technology is unlikely to change substantiaHy in the foreseeable future. The centers for commercial ammonia production may, however, relocate to sites where large quantities of natural gas are flared from cmde oil production, eg, Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. Relocation would not offset the problems for agriculture of high transportation and storage costs for ammonia production and distribution. Whereas the development of improved lower temperature and pressure catalysts is feasible, none is on the horizon as of this writing. 

Based on these developments, the foreseeable future sources of ammonia synthesis gas are expected to be mainly from steam reforming of natural gas, supplemented by associated gas from oil production, and hydrogen rich off-gases (especially from methanol plants). 

Smith, J. B., Predicting Future Failure Risk with Weibull Analysis, First International Conference on Improving Reliability in Petroleum Refineries and Chemical Plants and Natural Gas Plants, Organized by Gulf Publishing Co. and Hydrocarbon Processing, Houston, TX, November, 1992. 

In the future, if the criterion for selecting new generating capacity was solely fuel cost, coal will be the number one choice. But the much greater costs of coal-fired plants (primarily to meet local and federal emission standards), as well as the potential of tighter standards, will make gas more attractive in many cases. And although natural gas prices may rise, the fuel costs per kilowatt-hour for gas-fired power plants should remain unchanged as efficiency gains offset the rise in fuel prices. 

Another characteristic of the economic-efficiency concept IS that it does not require arbitrai y decisions by the analyst about, fur example, how coal should be evaluated compared with natural gas. The question of whether I Btu of coal is equal to 1, or perhaps 1/2, Btu of natural gas is answered directly by the market. The weightings of the marketplace, revealed in relative prices, vary with scarcity, cost of production, technology, and human preferences. Decisionmakers do not need to think about the underlying reasons, however. They need to know only current prices (and make their best guesses about future prices). 

A low-energy-future scenario envisioned in the late 1970s. By 2000, the energy being consumed from petroleum, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power were all on the rise, and renewable energy supplied a smaller fraction of total energy. 

Ahlhrandt, T. S., and Taylor, D.J. (1993). Domestic Conventional Natural Gas Reseives—Can They Be Increased hy the Year 2010 In The Future of Energy Gases, ed. David B. Howell. U.S. Geological Suivey Professional Paper 1570, 527-546. 

The industry has developed higher compression tanks to expand the range, and more fast-fill stations are becoming available, yet the prospects of the majority of service stations adding compressed natural gas refueling anytime in the near future are bleak. The oil companies, which control most of the service stations and over 60 percent of America s natural gas reserves, are not eager to make the massive infrastructure investment to cannibalize the billions of dollars they have tied up in refineries, pipelines, and service sta-... 

United States, methanol derived from natural gas as a fuel additive is a promising future market. Methanol has neither the environmental problems of methyl-t-butyl ether (MTBE), nor the evaporating qualities of ethanol. 

Demand for natural gas, in all markets—residential, commercial, and industrial—is projected to grow into the foreseeable future, particularly in the electric power generation market and the industrial sector. Total natural gas use in the United States is projected to grow from 20.1 quadrillion British thermal units in 1992 to 26.1 by 2010, an average growth rate of 1.6 percent per year. 

Washington, DC Energy Information Administration. Natural Gas The Fuel, The Future, The Regulation. Detroit, MT ANR Pipeline Company. 

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