Gulf Times: Natural gas to account for 30% of global power output by 2040

Natural gas will play a key role in meeting the rising global demand for power, a senior ExxonMobil executive has said.

Addressing the 3rd International Gas Processing Symposium organised by Qatar University yesterday, Bryan Wesselink, Exxon Mobil Qatar vice president & development manager, said as nations develop, the global economy would continue to need increasing amounts of electric power. By 2040, demand for electricity worldwide is expected to be 80% higher than that of today.

“This will create a growing need for fuel for power generation. Natural gas has proven itself to be safe and reliable for meeting this need. With this successful track record and the availability of abundant economic supplies, we expect natural gas will grow to provide 30% of the world’s electricity generation needs by 2040 – up from just over 20% today,” Wesselink said.

“And according to our projections, these resources will become all the more valuable as the world seeks less carbon-intensive energy sources, like natural gas. In fact, by 2025, we expect natural gas to overtake coal to become the second most widely used fuel in the world,” Wesselink said.

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