Gastech Days III & IV: Harnessing the power of natural gas and climatetech

Over the course of Thursday and Friday - days III & IV - of Gastech 2024 that put us on the home stretch towards the conclusion of global event, many of the conversations revolved around climatetech and harnessing the power of natural gas as a destination fuel in the world's march to a low to a zero carbon future. 

An action packed agenda was underpinned by several movers and shakers in the natural gas space especially LNG terminal developers and operators from Venture Global LNG to Mexico Pacific. 

Meanwhile, energy major Shell emphatically declared its intentions of continuing to expand its global LNG portfolio predicated in its belief of an expected industry growth of 50% by 2040. It also noted that North America's total upcoming LNG exports alone could account for around 30% of global demand by 2030. 

Many thought leaders also echoed each others' belief that decarbonizing industry and transportation would involve natural gas in close step with emerging technologies. Yours truly hosted panels on both transport sector decarbonization as well as climatetech on Thursday. 

The first of these was titled - Decarbonizing heavy transportation: Collaborations to address the acceleration of climate technology solutions from development to deployment. The panellists included Sukhmal Jain, Director (Marketing) & Board Member, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Yoki Firnandi, CEO, PT Pertamina International Shipping, Meg Gentle, Executive Director, HIF Global and Mark S. Brownstein, SVP, Environmental Defense Fund. 

Decarbonizing heavy transport, specifically shipping, aviation and HGV remains a key challenge in addressing climate change. 

The panellists discussed how to steer the transport industry to net zero by 2050, robust strategies that will be needed to stimulate supportive policies, innovation in technologies and collaboration across the value chain to drive the adoption of low- and zero-carbon fuels.

We also discussed some of the barriers to investment in zero-emissions fuelling infrastructure, including biofuels, hydrogen and clean ammonia, which can pave the way for achieving their long-term supply and the climate benefits of decarbonization and some of the incentives that may be required. 

Next yours truly's attention turned to climatetech via a panel titled - Fostering greater climate technology innovation, deployment, and scale across the value chain. Eminent panellists included - Mahdi Aladel, CEO, Aramco Ventures, Paula Gant, President & CEO, GTI Energy and Vikas Dhole,  Vikas Dhole, GM of Project Management, AspenTech. 

Climatetech innovation holds the key to ensuring a significant decarbonization of energy systems and GHG emissions reductions. 

The panel deliberated how governments, the energy value chain and the emerging climate technology market overcome challenges related to scalability, matching market demand with new energy supply and a lack of the workforce skills needed to drive further adoption and deployment of low-carbon technologies.  

As proceedings began to wind down late on Wednesday and early Thursday, attention turned to passing the baton on to next year's Gastech destination - Milan - which was revealed as the next host city for Gastech 2025. 

Simon Ford, Vice President, Gastech, dmgevents, said this year's event had seen participation of attendees from over 150 countries, including 50 official government delegations. 

The occasion was marked a lovely launch evening party before everyone bid goodbye to H-Town following an insightful and fantastic energy event that will live long in the industry's memory. Well that's all from Gastech 2024. See you at Gastech 2025 in Milan. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: The George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas, U.S. - Venue of Gastech 2024. Photo II: Gastech 2024 Strategic Panel on Decarbonizing heavy transportation: Collaborations to address the acceleration of climate technology solutions from development to deployment moderated by Gaurav Sharma. Photo III: Gastech 2025 Launch Reception at The Corinthian, Houston, Texas, US. © Gaurav Sharma 2024.