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Brett Woods, the chief executive of gas producer Beach Energy... Woods also warned importing gas could increase local prices for manufacturers that relied on g

Brett Woods, the chief executive of gas producer Beach Energy... Woods also warned importing gas could increase local prices for manufacturers that relied on gas for energy or as a feedstock by lifting their exposure to the volatile global commodity market, putting local jobs at risk. He is calling for governments to focus on opening new gas fields and building more storage facilities ahead of imports. Another point for nuclear energy?

andyferris 2y ago
Unfortunately I don't think that would work - I would guess that the current situation will resolve before any reactors are online. Possibly even our export contractural obligations would expire by then, too! (Should have built the nukes 20-30 years ago...)
OgsyedIE 2y ago
The molecules of natgas are physically reacted to make methanol, pyrolysis gasoline, butadiene, isobutene and MTBE[1], all of which are important precursors to thousands of product categories. Supposing that you have all of the electricity you want without natgas, where are you going to get the feedstock carbon for cracking? [1] There are also many other natgas products but the five I've listed are about 98% of natgas chemical production.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- SnorkelTan 2y ago
  Some stats I found with chat gpt: global oil production: 103.5 mbd (million barrels of oil) percentage not combusted: 15-20% natural gas: 4,400 bcm (billion cubic meters) percentage not combusted: 20-30% not combusted meaning used as an input in some other industrial process such as petrochemicals as you mentioned.
  - Sabinus 2y ago
    Did you use chat gpt to find sources or did you have it generate those numbers? Because if it's the latter those numbers are worthless.
    - SnorkelTan 2y ago
      It searched the web and cited sources.
- margalabargala 2y ago
  There's no need to open new natgas fields for chemical production. As electricity decarbonizes, there will be an oversupply of natgas from existing sources.
pstuart 2y ago
How about going big on solar -- seems like there's plenty of sun and open space to do it; and it's the cheapest energy source there is. I'm all for nuclear if it can be done "right", but it has yet to demonstrate that it can compete economically (SMRs hold promise yet have failed to make headway).

andyferris 2y ago

Unfortunately I don't think that would work - I would guess that the current situation will resolve before any reactors are online. Possibly even our export contractural obligations would expire by then, too! (Should have built the nukes 20-30 years ago...)

OgsyedIE 2y ago

The molecules of natgas are physically reacted to make methanol, pyrolysis gasoline, butadiene, isobutene and MTBE[1], all of which are important precursors to thousands of product categories. Supposing that you have all of the electricity you want without natgas, where are you going to get the feedstock carbon for cracking? [1] There are also many other natgas products but the five I've listed are about 98% of natgas chemical production.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
SnorkelTan 2y ago
Some stats I found with chat gpt: global oil production: 103.5 mbd (million barrels of oil) percentage not combusted: 15-20% natural gas: 4,400 bcm (billion cubic meters) percentage not combusted: 20-30% not combusted meaning used as an input in some other industrial process such as petrochemicals as you mentioned.
- Sabinus 2y ago
  Did you use chat gpt to find sources or did you have it generate those numbers? Because if it's the latter those numbers are worthless.
  - SnorkelTan 2y ago
    It searched the web and cited sources.
margalabargala 2y ago
There's no need to open new natgas fields for chemical production. As electricity decarbonizes, there will be an oversupply of natgas from existing sources.

pstuart 2y ago

How about going big on solar -- seems like there's plenty of sun and open space to do it; and it's the cheapest energy source there is. I'm all for nuclear if it can be done "right", but it has yet to demonstrate that it can compete economically (SMRs hold promise yet have failed to make headway).