Natural Gas Is Still King of the Hill Despite Several Pretenders

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Ignore the nonsense ginned up by those who suppose “green energy” is the future; gas is still King of the Hill, swatting away others.

Today In Energy, despite operating under the aegis of the never[ending climate pandering of the Biden Administration and its pompous patrician John Kerry, cannot but tell the truth. Natural gas is riding high and is very much still King of the Hill when it comes to energy. Yesterday’s post, in fact, was a marvel to behold in that respect.

The year 2020, of course, was a remarkable one in the sense that WuFlu lockdowns depressed demand in many energy sectors but everyone still needed electricity and gas is the cleanest and most economical way to generate it on a moment’s notice when and where needed.

So, the electric power sector showed growth despite the artificial recession imposed by bureaucrats and politicians obsessed with a different sort of power. And, look at the long-term trends. Gas use is soaring in both the electrical power and industrial sectors. It is experiencing slow but steady growth in transportation as well (emphasis added).

Natural gas consumption in the U.S. electric power sector grew to a record-high 11.6 Tcf in 2020, up 3% compared with 2019. The U.S. electric power sector has consumed more gas than any other sector in five of the past six years…
Natural gas has become an increasingly important source of energy for U.S. electricity over the past several years. [It] has remained the primary source of electricity generation in the United States since it surpassed coal in 2016. More than 100 coal plants have been replaced with or converted to gas since 2011.

But, this isn’t the most exciting news. No, that honor goes to the growth in gas exports and further securing of our energy independence (if Joe Xiden doesn’t destroy it all:

U.S. gas exports increased to a record-high 5.3 Tcf in 2020, up 13% compared with 2019. U.S. exports of gas have grown substantially over the past decade, and in 2017, exports surpassed imports … for the first time since 1957. About 55% of U.S. natural gas exports in 2020 were sent by pipeline to Mexico and Canada. Most of the rest was shipped overseas as LNG. Mexico receives more U.S. natural gas exports than any other country, and U.S. gas exports to Mexico reached a record high of 2.0 Tcf in 2020. U.S. LNG exports also increased to a record high in 2020, and almost half went to Asia. Natural gas imports in 2020 decreased to less than 2.6 Tcf, the lowest level since 1993. Nearly all U.S. natural gas imports originate from Canada…

Natural gas production in the United States has generally increased over the past decade because of widespread adoption of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques that allow operators to more economically produce natural gas from shale formations.