Time.news – Eight hundred thousand kilometers of pipes, enough to travel the diameter of the Earth 25 times. Another 200,000 kilometers are planned or under construction, to reach about 30 times the diameter of the planet. The web of natural gas distribution in the world has seen a powerful development from the 1960s onwards, when the new techniques for its extraction and marketing made it possible to establish its affirmation as a source of energy, replacing, together with oil, coal as the most used fuel.
Despite advances in renewables, fossil fuels still account for around 80% of the world’s energy consumption (Global Energy Monitor data). Every day the world consumes about 60 million barrels of natural gas (100 of oil) for energy supply, which provide on average 25% of the energy used by advanced countries, and an annual production of around 136 billion. of cubic meters.
GAS, PIPES AND SHIPS
Pipes are the main infrastructure for the distribution of gas, together with container ships capable of transporting liquefied gas (LNG): currently 642 ships sail the seas, almost doubled in the last 10 years. A fundamental weapon to allow a country to alternate sources of supply, especially when the supply of gas becomes an instrument of geopolitical tensions such as those that oppose Western countries and Russia over Ukraine. To date, the countries with the most developed natural gas pipeline network are the United States (333,366 kilometers), Russia (92,831), Canada (84,682) and China (76,363).
PRODUCING AND EXPORTING COUNTRIES
The ranking partly reflects that of the largest gas producers in the world, which see the United States excel (766,200 million cubic meters per year), followed by Russia (635,500 million) followed by Iran, Qatar, Canada, China and the EU ( about 150,000 million), while 93 countries worldwide produce it to date (40,000 million cubic meters is the average production, Italy produces 7,800 in 46th place). From here the gas starts to cover both the needs of the producing countries and those of the countries that do not produce enough of it and are forced to import it. Most of the gas transportation infrastructure is owned by the Russian Gazprom (103,212 kilometers), followed by the Canadian Tc Energy (99,440), and the American Kinder Morgan (82,075).
ORIGINS AND RISE OF GAS
Gas exploration is not over and the natural gas market is constantly growing, together with that of its marketing: in the last 20 years the map of the main producing countries has changed constantly. it is a known resource for at least three millennia.
The first encounter was documented in 1,000 BC: a flame on Parnassus was considered a manifestation of the power of the gods and the Greeks built there the temple of the Oracle of Delphi, inspiring the Pythia in her divinations. The second 500 years later, when China began to build the first bamboo pipes to transport gas and heat water or make it drinkable.
Gas as an energy source was therefore well known, but difficult to use on a large scale. Only after the discovery in 1959 of the large fields of Groningen, in the Netherlands, did the serious exploitation of gas for commercial purposes begin, starting the construction of pipelines that joined those that transported gas from the Soviet Union to Europe. The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 gave a considerable boost to the development of pipelines, while in the following decades before the technologies for the liquefaction of gas (LNG) and those for producing shale gas removed the status of the poorest relative of the gas. within the fossil fuel family, consecrating its rise.
PIPELINE: EUROPA
Even if the cargo ships for the distribution of LNG represent a valid alternative, the pipes are the most used infrastructure in the world for the distribution of gas. About 27% of the world’s pipelines are present in Europe. 41% of gas comes from Russia, 16.2% from Norway, 7.6% from Algeria and 5.2% from Qatar, very rich in gas, but for geographical reasons forced to sell it only if liquefied. The infrastructures that transport it intertwine underground and represent a dense network of pipelines. The longest pipeline carrying gas from Russia to Europe is the Yamal-Europe pipeline. It stretches for 1,660 kilometers and has a capacity of 90 million cubic meters per day.
It transports gas from the Russian Yamal Peninsula to European consumers and passes through Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany. But the gas in Europe from Russia also comes from the Nord Stream gas pipeline, from the Nord Stream 2, debated and for a couple of years being completed: both connect Russia directly to Germany. While it arrives from Azerbaijan via the Turkey-Greece-Italy interconnector: 807 kilometers long, it has a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters a year. About 80% of Russian gas in Europe passes through pipelines that run through Ukraine.
PIPELINE: MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
6% of the world’s pipelines are present in Africa. One of these is of particular interest to Europe, and is the Trans-Mediterranean gas pipeline which carries gas from Algeria to Europe, passing through Italy. it is 2,475 kilometers long and has a capacity of 92 million cubic meters of gas. Its construction began in 1983 and reaches Algeria and Tunisia on the African continent, before reaching Slovenia. Other channels that bring gas to Europe from the Middle East are the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline, which crosses the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Greenstream which reaches the Sicilian coast from Tripoli.
PIPELINE: ASIA
16% of the world’s pipelines cross Asia and Australia. The main ones in terms of length and capacity are the East-West Gas Pipeline, consisting of four gas pipelines that run between Turkmenistan and Xinjiang and arrive in western China and Shanghai in the eastern part. However, relations between Moscow and Beijing are intensifying, and this is also reflected in gas supplies: Gazprom inaugurated the Power of Siberia, a gas pipeline that for the first time opened the doors to the Chinese market, and a second pipeline is in the pipeline: the Altay or Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. , which will go fishing in the same fields that supply Europe today. While another agreement will bring Russian gas to China via a pipeline that will connect Siberia to Vladivostok.
USA AND SOUTH AMERICA
Over 51% of the pipelines run on the American continent. Between 2009 and 2014, the US actually doubled its domestic gas production: they were among the world’s largest importers, now they are leading producers. In 2020, the US supplied 19 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas to Europe, becoming the main supplier of LNG to the Old Continent.
In the US, on the other hand, gas moves through the densest tangle of pipes in the world: Colonial Pipeline has a length of 8,850 kilometers, connects Huston to New York, and a capacity of 3 million barrels per day. Gasbol is 3,150 kilometers long and has a capacity of 30 million cubic meters per day of gas brought from Bolivia to Brazil; Rockie Express 2,709 kilometers with a capacity of 102 million per day and connects the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to Ohio. But the network of pipes crossing the United States towards Canada, another leading producer, the fifth in the world for capacity, is also intense.
LIQUEFIED GAS
Separate discussion for liquefied gas. It continues to show significant growth rates, and here the capacity of each country is measured both in the quantity of natural resources and in technologies suitable for its marketing and in shipowners in possession of LNG carriers. Currently there are 642, but dozens of them are built every year, with a strong progression in the last 10. With the process of gas condensation, its volume is reduced by 600 times allowing to store a considerable amount of energy in a much smaller space . This means that it takes 600 liters of methane gas to obtain one liter in liquid form.
IN 2021 THE UNITED STATES WERE THE LEADING LNG EXPORTER
In December 2021, the United States became, for the first time, the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world. Exports surpassed 7 million tonnes in December, according to ICIS Lng Edge ship tracking data, just outpacing rival manufacturers from Qatar and Australia.
Until now most of the US’s LNG exports went to Asia, with about 13% to South Korea, 13% to China and 10% to Japan, according to US data. But an important slice also arrives in Europe, and could be destined to grow with the tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine.
From 2010 to today, the production of this type of gas has grown by 70% and the leadership of the USA is destined to grow when Venture Global Lng’s Calcasieu Pass terminal comes into operation. Not just the US.
The liquefied gas market is seeing the rapid rise of Qatar and Australia, whose sales levels in December 2021 were slightly lower than the American ones (around 7.7 million tons). According to Bloomberg, 1,043 shipments of gas departed from the American terminals in 2021, marking a historic record. Half went to Asia and a third to Europe. And many analysts believe that liquefied gas will drive the future of energy markets.