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So let's just talk a little bit here to conclude this video about what
is moving this sector, the the natural gas sector in particular.
A lot of these things were, are very similar
to what we discussed in the case of oil.
We have, significant population growth and increasing
income tending to increase demand for all kinds of things including things that
consume natural, like we want more electricity and we want, you
know, all kinds of, of new thing that increase demand for natural gas.
There's also as we, we saw, a very high prices in Asia
for gas, so increased demand for liquified natural gas which is the thing that
can be transported to a significant degree over international boundaries.
The the environmental
concerns with coal mean that it's a lot easier
to go through the permitting process associated with developing new gas
fired generation and so we're seeing coal, coal
fired generation capacity being retired and in many
cases, replaced by gas fired generation.
There's a sense in which gas is much more complementary with a move towards
renewables, because it is probably the cleanest
end of the spectrum of nonrenewable fuels.
And then, you know there are there is this you know maybe a
political motivation to increase energy and independence here in the US.
And of course technological innovation has just opened up so many opportunities to to
profitably explore for and, and extract natural gas from unconventional places.
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The factors that would discourage investment in this, in this
sector you know, low price for natural gas that to
some extent is derivative or an artifact of, of the
fact that it's just become so cost effective to develop it.
So, you know, that's certainly pushing back on, on some of the on
some of the growth that's been motivated by these other factors we talked about.
But it is in a sense derivative of
its, it's a consequence of these growth factors.
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Energy efficiency and you know, moving you
know, basically advanced economy just using less
energy in general is also reducing demand for all kinds of energy across the board.
Improvements in technologies for renewables is, is going
to be competitive with natural gas, certainly if
natural gas if it comes in to sufficiently high demand to drive up the price a bit.
And there are some,
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concerns with, climate implications of use of natural gas because, natural gas
still is a greenhouse gas emitting approach to generating electricity.
And then lastly, as I mentioned in that discussion about, about political
pushback on fracking there is this resistance, you know, in,
in some, in significant respects, very legitimate resistance to this
technology because of what it means for the proximity of this industrial activity
to either people's places of work, their children's school, or the basically
the biggest asset they own, which is their, their homes and their property.
So these, these things are sort of, the kinds of things that
are probably big challenges, you know, I, I think right now in
this sector, the, this political resistance
to these unconventionals is really probably
one of the most significant, significant headwinds that the sector is facing.
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And then lastly, I just wanted to conclude by sharing the employment outlook slide.
But this is identical to the
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the BLS does not separate out natural gas.
Did that for the purposes of really highlighting
the, the implications of innovations and shale gas development.
So pretty much the, you know, all of the, the key, the
key the key occupations here that you, that I talked
about when it came to oil, the same types of folks,
I'm just circling some of the less obvious ones to a lot of,
a lot of people that they're the same types of occupations
that are being employed in the natural gas, in, in the in
the value stream for producing and delivering natural gas.
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Michael J. OrlandoLecturer
