Oil and Gas practice

The industry and the power plants sector account for the highest monetization of natural gas compared to others [5]. Specifically in the United States, coal began modestly in 2008 and dropped from 48.21% to 33.18% in 2015. Coal lost 15 % of the market, while natural gas increased 11% in the same period, as shown in Table 1.2. Renewable sources (not including solar and hydropower) increased 3.6% to 6.7% overall. The electricity sector is a major emitter of CO2 in the United States, and it is assumed to be responsible of 29% of global warming emissions.
Coal is the major source for these emissions, and therefore natural gas and renewables emerged to substitute for coal in this sector [6, 7]. That results in natural gas and renewables picking up 14.8% of the market (i.e., or ∼99% of the market lost by coal). In 2016, natural gas become the major sources of electricity in the United States (∼34%) followed by coal (30%), nuclear (∼20%), and the renewables (∼16%) [8].

Table 1.3 Advantages and disadvantages for monetizing natural gas in industry and power plants.
Main advantages
• Creates economies of scale (large individual offtakes)
• Offers good load factor
• Can avoid costly treatment facilities as gas quality is not usually critical
• Provides basic gas infrastructure for subsequent expansion
• Requires no storage on users’ premises and avoids waste disposal problems
• Uses conventional technology
• More eco-friendly (no SOx and less NOx and
CO 2 emissions, no particulates, etc.) than coal and most oil products
Disadvantages and constraints
Possibly lower value in competition with coal, fuel oil, hydro, etc.
• Load factor may be low if the end consumer installs dual-fired capability or buys gas on an interruptible basis.