OGRepublic August Edition

AMERICAN PETROLEUM INTERVIEW
"API is focusing on using Data to clearly show the
positive role that natural gas plays in reducing GHG
emissions" - Dustin Meyer
Interview by:
Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
The coal-to-gas fuel-switching that has resulted
from this increased demand has been the
leading driver of emissions reductions in the
country. Over those same 12 years, coal-to-gas
switching in the power sector led to a more than
30% reduction in GHG emissions.
What motivates me and my Natural Gas Market
team are finding ways to export this recipe for
reducing emissions to other countries around
the world, and we believe one of the best ways
to do that now is through LNG.
OGR: What's API strategies to boost LNG
growing role in the transition to a lowercarbon
future?
Meyer: API is focusing on using data to clearly
show the positive role that natural gas plays in
reducing GHG emissions.
Oil and Gas Republic talks to Dustin
Meyer, Vice President for Natural Gas
Market, at American Petroleum Institute
(API), about the growing role of Gas &
LNG in the United States of America.
Dustin Meyer, who previously served as
API's policy advisor on Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG) and other global issues. He
began his career working with the
National Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) after completing his Bachelor's
degree at Princeton University. He
received his Master's of Environmental
Management from Yale University and
continued his career with IHS Energy as a
senior analyst. He then went to work with
Energy Ventures Analysis as a lead analyst
of global LNG and renewable energy
before joining API.
American Petroleum Institute (API) was
formed in 1919 as a standards-setting
organization. In its first 100 years, API has
developed more than 700 standards to
enhance operational and environmental
safety, efficiency and sustainability.
API represents all segments of America's
oil and natural gas industry. More than
600 members produce, process and
distribute most of the nation's energy. The
industry supports more than ten million
U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots
movement of millions of Americans. Excerpts:
OGR: What has been your motivation for Gas
& LNG development in the United States?
Meyer: As I’m sure your audience knows, the
shale revolution in the United States is what has
enabled such a significant increase in natural
gas and oil production over the last 15 years.
It allowed a significant amount of dry gas
production in the Marcellus, Permian, and
other areas, but the sharp increase in oil
production led to a lot of associated gas
production, as well.
Over the 12 years between 2006 and 2018,
associated gas production in the United States
went from about 8% of total natural gas
production to 16%, and in the crude oil regions
a s s o c i a t e d g a s s a w e v e n s t r o n g e r
growth—going from 8% to 37% of natural gas
production in these regions.
In the United States, electricity generation has
been the largest source of demand growth for
domestically produced natural gas for the past
decade.
Demand for natural gas in the power sector
increased more than 110% between 2007-
2019, allowing gas to make up about 36% of
total consumption in 2019.
Countries all around the world are thinking
about what their energy futures will look like,
and a lot of the current conversation on the
transition is being driven by aspirations. While
aspirations can give you a sense of what the end
goal may look like, they can’t give you a
roadmap of how to reach it. For something as
complex as the energy transition, a transition
that will touch so many facets of people’s
everyday lives, you need data to help guide you.
Here in the United States, we already have more
than a decade’s worth of evidence showing that
displacing coal in the power sector with a
combination of low-cost natural gas and
increasingly affordable renewable energy is a
winning recipe for rapid and significant
emissions reductions.
It is this trend that has helped the United States
lead the world in emissions reductions over
roughly the last 10 years and it represents
exactly the sort of ‘quick win’ the world needs to
get on a lower emissions trajectory and reduce
the risks of climate change.
Going forward, accelerated deployment of both
wind and solar will certainly play a major role in
driving additional emissions reductions, but
even here, it’s important to emphasize the
essential role natural gas plays in balancing
generation from these variable renewable
energy sources.
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