Huge Rise in Global Gas Demand Predicted

ExxonMobil is forecasting that natural gas, not renewable energy, will supply the major share of incremental global energy requirements between now and 2030.

"We're making big investments in gas," said Rob Gardner, the manager of the economics and energy division of the corporate strategic planning department at ExxonMobil.

At a briefing in Dubai on the company's latest long-term energy outlook, extending to 2030, the company said that it was expecting to use technology developed to exploit prolific shale-gas deposits in the US to develop similar resources overseas.

According to ExxonMobil's forecast, rapid growth in emerging economies would drive up global energy demand 70 per cent by 2030 from its level in 2005. Fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal - would continue to meet most of the world's energy needs during this period, with gas showing the highest growth in global consumption.

Although the supply of wind and solar power, as well as biofuels, was set to increase sharply in the next two decades, their contribution to global energy supplies by 2030 would still be unlikely to constitute more than 20 per cent, Gardner said.

The expanding use of gas and, to a lesser extent, nuclear energy combined with energy efficiency improvements, would be the major developments helping to mitigate carbon emissions and environmental impacts from higher energy consumption. Nevertheless, the most significant policy issue affecting the global energy sector would be climate policy and the pace at which it developed, Gardner predicted.

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