LNG – killer app for diesel
LNG is the fuel of this century. It’s clean, its feedstock is abundant, and it’s cleaner than any other hydrocarbon. Perfect conditions to dethrone King Diesel.
This is my first post so I want to keep it short and sweet. I want to make this a blog on LNG as I believe that LNG is going to fuel this planet like diesel does today. I don’t believe that the change will be smooth or swift but this is not for technological reasons.
The real stumbling block is old habits and existing networks. Energy is big business and in many countries, politics and big energy are strongly interwoven. A new fuel such as LNG disturbs those old arrangements and for this reason, it is resisted.
I am based in Europe so naturally, Europe is my battlefield. But apart from me living here I also believe that Europe is going to be the fault line of an enormous energy earthquake. And it has already begun to shake things up. No other place on earth has liberalized an atomized energy landscape so quickly and so uniformly. Few places on earth sell their populations more expensive fuels and the green movement was not only born here – it’s also the most influential.
LNG is plentiful, reasonably clean, and compared to diesel it’s a cheap fuel. As Victor Hugo once famously said, “Not the strongest army on earth can stop ideas when their time has come”. LNG’s time has come – nothing will stop that. One can stand in the way or take the ride.
I agree. Let’s hope that we can get on board with LNG on this side of the Atlantic (USA).
It clearly is hard to distinguish solid long-term trend from the hubris that’s normally part of any hype. But the fundamentals are broadly in favor of LNG becoming a serious part of the equation now. And what this whole development does is creating the industrial basis for a LNG economy. The real hotbed of LNG as a fuel activities will be Europe though as fuel is so much more expensive here and environmental matters loom large in local politics. Will still not be easy sailing. I will post on that repeatedly.