James Mulva: ConocoPhillips chief executive
Mulva touts natural gas
ConocoPhillips chief executive James Mulva championed natural gas as more than a bridge to alternative fuels but a long-term solution to meeting future energy demand.
He told an audience at Ceraweek 2010 conference, organised by IHS Cera in Houston, that gas will remain a leading base-load power generation and heating source because of its cleanliness, reasonable cost and abundance.
"If oil is 'The Prize', then natural gas is 'The Gift'," Mulva said in reference to IHS Cera chairman Daniel Yergin's famous book on the history of oil.
All sources of energy are needed, Mulva said, but renewables cannot ramp up fast enough, Mulva said. Gas is the answer, "if we are allowed to unwrap the gift".
While US Energy Secretary Steven Chu earlier spoke of gas as a bridge fuel, Mulva goes a step further, embracing gas as the long-term solution for maybe centuries. The world uses 107 trillion cubic feet of gas per year, according to Mulva. Proven conventional reserves are about 6500 Tcf, a 60-year supply, but with unconventional gas added, the number of total resources mushrooms to more than 38,000 Tcf, enough for centuries of supply.
He credited the "power of technology" and innovations such as hydraulic fracturing, seismic imaging and horizontal wells for unlocking unconventional gas. He also mentioned Canada's oil sands and shale rock in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming as the primary unconventional sources for oil in North America.
"In our industry, who knows, we will drill wells with possibly laser beams," he said. "There will be technological advances that would seem inconceivable today."
Coal will remain essential, too, he said, which can be converted to gas or liquid fuels.
"Oil will continue as a transportation fuel, wherever alternatives are impractical," he said. "It will be essential for lubricants and petrochemicals."