How LNG is helping to deliver responsible energy security

The demand for energy and the need for nations to ensure that they can meet that demand has never been greater than it is today. The world is attempting to meet that demand with an increasingly diverse array of cleaner energy sources – from renewables, like wind and solar, to a heightened interest in nuclear power, to bio-based sources, such as sustainable aviation fuel.

Despite this diversity and the innovation behind it, there is one energy source that more countries are turning to as part of their mix to ensure energy security – liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Earlier this year, for example, India’s gas-fired power usage doubled, making a small dent in the use of higher-emitting fossil fuels to provide the population with power. With India’s domestically produced gas largely being used for things like fertilizer and cooking fuel in cities, much of that new demand for gas can only be reliably met through LNG imports.

While renewables and nuclear are growing in importance and will continue to do so, LNG is unique in its flexibility and broad application. The applications vary. Vietnam for example, is making a big bet on imported LNG with plans to build 15 new LNG-fired power plants by 2035 with a combined capacity of over 22-gigawats.

According to Shell’s LNG Outlook 2024, global demand is expected to increase by more than 50% by 2040. This will be driven largely by the move away from higher emitting fossil fuels, which is getting underway in India and is further along in other emerging markets. In addition to heightened energy security, this leads to economic development. Gas distribution networks, power plants and manufacturing facilities all must be financed and built and that process creates jobs and grows the local economy.

Despite all of this, LNG has its detractors. Some question the move to yet another fossil fuel when there are many more environmentally friendly fuels available. In other words, how do we balance the need for energy security that LNG so readily meets, with the need for emissions security that so much of the world demands?

There is no simple or single answer, but the case for LNG is significant. First and foremost, using LNG in place of higher emitting fossil fuels provides an immediate and large reduction in carbon intensity – not to mention a nearly 100% reduction in particulate pollution.

Then there’s the matter of reliability and consistency. As the India experience illustrates, while wind and solar are wonderful energy resources they are intermittent and LNG provides grid stability when renewable generation dips.

Beyond these relative measures, the shift to LNG has also sparked innovation. While, for years, the promise of carbon capture at the point of gas extraction, liquefaction and combustion has been more hypothetical than scalable – today, that is no longer the case. A growing number of large-scale carbon capture projects are coming on line worldwide, demonstrating that we have the capacity to stop carbon in its tracks and keep it in the ground where it belongs.

Similarly, advancements in the use of radar and drone technology for methane leak detection and the hardening of LNG storage and shipping containers, have begun to significantly reduce the carbon intensity of the entire LNG supply chain.

One day, we can hope, the world will be energized by a new power source – perhaps something we have yet to imagine. Until then, however, it will be all the above – the energy mix that includes wind, solar, hydrogen, biofuels, nuclear (fission) and, yes, LNG all working together to meet our global needs.

While each has its shortcomings, each source has its advantages as well. That story of balance is also the story of LNG – a flexible fuel whose shortcomings are being increasingly addressed by human innovation, enabling it to be a significant part of a balanced and equitable approach to meeting the global demand for energy security.