Statoil believes natural gas is key to Europe’s energy future
Last week, Statoil kicked off a marketing campaign arguing for natural gas to be part of Europe’s energy mix for the long term.
“Natural gas is key to solving Europe’s energy challenges going forward, delivering on cost competiveness, security of supply and the climate challenge,” says Rune Bjørnson, Statoil’ senior vice president for natural gas. “We are making the case for natural gas and pointing out that this energy source is a particular attractive option in the power segment, being cost competitive, relying on proven technology and having the lowest CO2 footprint compared to other fossil fuels.”
The world, including Europe, stands to tackle the challenge of meeting growing energy demand while at the same reducing CO2 emissions.
“Our contribution is to focus on an energy source we deem as an obvious and cost-efficient solution that can make a large contribution in meeting both the issue of energy supply and reducing CO2 emissions,” Mr. Bjørnson said. “In our view natural gas should have a key role to play in EU’s long term energy mix as it is an affordable, abundant and a low carbon fossil fuel.”
Statoil bases its argurment on the fact that natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and can make a significant and immediate contribution in cutting Europe’s CO2-emissions by replacing coal-fired power plants with power plants fuelled by natural gas. Statoil says a modern gas plant emits 60-70% less than an old coal plant. In addition, natural gas is energy efficient and very competitive when it comes to capital costs per mw installed, requiring no subsidies.
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