Natural gas is already a major global energy source, accounting for around 21% of the world’s energy supply five years ago. Recently, BP chief executive Bob Dudley suggested that while fossil fuels would continue to meet most of the word’s energy needs, the balance will shift in favour of natural gas.
Millions of small biogas plants are used by rural households across Africa and India, saving families from the arduous work of gathering wood for fuel – and saving trees too.
If you were asked to consider the mid- to long-term outlook for the shipping industry based on what has happened over the last six months or so, you might think all is rosy. The cost of bunker fuel has come down, in line with the continuing fall in the price of crude oil (which is down by more than 50% since June), while value-seeking oil buyers in the Far East are still active enough to keep tankers busy and tanker operators happy.
The US government made its new methane emissions goal public this month, stipulating that by 2025, emissions from the oil and gas sector are to be cut to 40 to 45 per cent of 2012 levels.
As New Year’s Eve fireworks were lighting up the night sky, operators working in the marine fuel industry were already facing up to the first major challenge of 2015.
As worldwide demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) rises, so does the number of specialist LNG carriers plying the ocean waves.
The last century has seen the world’s demand for water grow twice as fast as the population. With fresh water becoming increasingly scarce, governments are looking to new desalination technologies to meet future needs.
According to a recent report Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) application is set to grow and become an important part of the global transport market, taking LNG bunker demand up to 77 million tones in 2035.
Oil is going to be vital for fuelling our cars and heating our homes for a long time to come. Fortunately, the UK Continental Shelf contains enough of it to fill 24 billion barrels.
Now with more pressure to take care of the environment and high bunker fuel costs, the shipping industry has to carefully monitor operating expenditure and fuel consumption. There have been longstanding methods to measure fuel consumption, such as tank measurements and noon reporting. But with high accuracy becoming increasingly important for ship owners and operators, the use of fuel flow meters for shipping operations is growing in popularity.