Why I do this
It feels like every day on LinkedIn I see a former colleague departing the Gas & LNG sector to work in hydrogen, renewables, carbon capture, or similar. I wish y’all well, I really do - but I’m staying in LNG.
With increasing frequency, I hear whispers from folk in the industry who are uncomfortable, wondering if they have made good career choices, concerned they are in a dead-end, dying industry and shy to speak of what they do for a living. I can identify with this - perhaps less in Houston, but certainly in Australia & in the dark green People’s Republic of British Columbia.
In fact, I recently introduced myself (at a fancy dress party while dressed as Ted Lasso) as working for Philip Morris with the job of getting third world kids hooked on cigarettes before they knew better. Saying ‘Gas and LNG’ after that felt like a direct line to sainthood.
Truth be told - I’m proud of what I do, I’m proud of the positive impact the LNG industry has on lives and economies around the world, and I believe we have a critical role to play. I also believe that as an industry we lack advocacy at the personal level - I’m not talking about industry lobby groups, I’m talking about supporting each other and speaking openly .
So, in the hope that it helps you, here’s my “why”:
Energy is essential. OK, I’m starting with a statement of the bleeding obvious, but y’know what, it matters. I don’t feed my family by selling stuff people don’t need.
Gas is the cleanest, most flexible, reliable and *scaleable* option we have available in the next decade to two. If renewables really were cheaper and equally reliable, then economics would take care of the rest and we wouldn’t need a debate. Greenpeace didn’t save the whale, rational economics and the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania did.
It improves lives at the production and consumption ends of the supply chain. Employment and economic benefits for local communities and First Nations (this isn’t a corporate line - I’ve seen it in action), and the cleanup at the consumer end as coal is phased out. I grew up in Newcastle at the end of the coal era, this was the backdrop to my childhood. Maybe I’ll write a post about this one day.
LNG democratises gas. Add points 1, 2 and 3, mix in the weaponisation of energy (proof of point 1!) and we have a potent mixture. Postcard to all the folk in Europe who didn’t freeze this winter after a flotilla of cargos descended on the Atlantic: You’re welcome, Love from LNG xx.
1+4=5. Much of the world still needs access to reliable, affordable energy. The current excitement about defunding “fossil fuels” (more on that term to come later) leads to two outcomes: Production gets driven into less accountable, privately-owned hands, and developing countries are stymied in their search to alleviate energy poverty or forced on to coal. This neo-colonialism needs to be called out: as the Senegalese Energy Minister eloquently put it recently, “taking away financing is like removing the ladder and asking us to jump or fly.”
We don’t all get to work in all aspects of all of these things all of the time, but that doesn’t make the points any less valid - in fact, it demonstrates the need for us to operate as a better team and improve our storytelling.
Finally, I should also add that how we do it still matters. Anything can be done responsibly or irresponsibly, and now more than ever we need good governance and an open mind. The EU may be on to something with their recent categorisation of some gas as sustainable, but I’d like to come back to the friends I mentioned at the start of this story.
Gas and alternatives are not adversaries - they are better together. Some of the most interesting innovations are borne of such combinations… I believe we’ll move faster if we start thinking of the future energy mix as “… and” instead of “… or”.
AB