SHELL vice president: Peak Gas could come 'earlier than we think'

For the gas industry, peak gas output could come sooner than expected, "maybe not too different from peak oil," Shell executive vice president John Mills told delegates at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi on 5 November 2008.

"Globally, what people have woken up to is that there is a prospect for the gas industry that its supply-demand crunch could come earlier than anticipated," he said.

"The Middle East will still be increasing its gas exports right through that [peak in global gas supply], but the picture in North America and Europe will be quite different," he said.

Chris Ball of Occidental said "we are very optimistic that there are large reserves of gas out there, which if customers will accept the price, [can be developed]. Industry can be creative and innovative [to find solutions] but it will take money."

ADNOC's gas processing manager Ismail Al Ramahi said that 40% of global gas reserves were in the Middle East, but he said the distribution of the available gas to the market was concentrated in a few countries.

Abu Dhabi will use gas mostly domestically except for its commitment for exports to Japan until 2019. There are only two countries in the Middle East, Iran and Qatar, that are exporting. Increased exports are "not even on the radar" until the long-term future, he said.

Read more: Platts