What is the story from boots on the ground at CERAWeek 2024?  Well, in Houston CERAWeek hosted thousands of the brightest minds coming together to answer the questions of the future of energy. How will supply and demand balance in a world of uncertainty? How will growing global tensions and conflicts impact or even reshape the global energy markets? How will decarbonization progress and how will climate goals compete with priorities around economic growth, security, affordability, and access?

CERAWeek gave a huge variety of sessions and presentations, insightful into how different companies and leaders in energy are approaching the energy transition. Below are some key takeaways from Dr. Ning Lin, Chief Economist at the University of Texas at Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology:

Some key takeaways from CERAWeek 2024:

• “[The] energy transition requires diversity and portfolio approach not a simple binary choice of conventional versus renewables.” – The “Capital Transition” Funding the Energy Transition session
• “[Natural] gas is a long-term solution as part of [the] energy transition, and Sempra infrastructure shows how to hold a long-term strategy with an opportunistic and flexible approach.” – Spotlight | Global Gas: How markets are changing session
• “Natural gas is the transitional and bridging role for many emerging clean solutions, and it is important to provide flexible contracts to customers.” – Spotlight | Global Gas: How markets are changing session
• [There is] “tremendous potential of Asian demand, particularly India’s aim to rely on LNG imports for 75% of its gas needs.” – Asian Gas: Delivering security of supply session
• “We have only increased the pipeline capacity by about 25% and the storage capacity by 2% since the LNG import started. This shows that there is a great demand, while more midstream development is needed. Otherwise, the local basis will reflect the increasing constraints.” –The Future Role of Natural Gas in a Low Carbon World session
• “Permian gas has helped capped the global price and the US and brownfield LNG incremental addition in the US offers more flexibility.” – Gas & LNG: Investing for the long-term session
• “Permitting reform is necessary to meet the demand in the United States. While it is getting better for the generation side, the transmission and interconnection parts still need to be completed. The coordination between sectors, like generation and interconnection, must be improved in both the U.S. and Germany. The coordination among the players and along the value chain is crucial, which often delays the infrastructure meeting the demand, usually by five years or more later.” – Catching Up: Meeting the challenge of power demand growth session

Further takeaways of views that have been made at CERAWeek:

• The focus on fossil fuels, especially in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, emphasized the volatility and risks associated with oil dependency, pushing the narrative towards renewable energy as a safer bet.
• Seen as a bridge in the transition to cleaner energy, natural gas is back in favor as a relatively cleaner option compared to coal and oil, especially considering recent energy crises.
• Even as the market for natural gas and LNG is still growing, the market for renewables is also accelerating rapidly in terms of both growth and investments being made. The shift in corporate demand towards more impactful and sustainable energy procurement, particularly 24/7 carbon-free energy, is driving the evolution of the renewable market.
• However, the energy transition is a massive undertaking and will require collaboration across sectors, governments, and nations is critical for the success of the energy transition, aiming to achieve large-scale impact through united efforts.

Even with the continued push towards renewables by many nations and companies around the world, an energy transition away from the current energy system to a system still being constructed makes it a distant dream. But during this transition period natural gas has proved to be the cleanest fossil fuel to bridge this gap and the market is responding this way.

Dr. Lin also recently commented on the current overall state of the natural gas and LNG market in podcast with Natural Gas World which you can watch here.

Interested in the future of natural gas and LNG markets? Contact us to find out how we can help you navigate these volatile markets and help you and your company make better energy decisions.