Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. On average, it emits half the CO2 and significantly less local pollution for each unit of electricity produced than modern coal-burning power plants. Shell produces around 3% of the world’s natural gas. Roughly 40% of our total production is gas – either as pipeline gas or liquefied natural gas (LNG) (see below "LNG Leader"). Investing in gas production is an important part of our strategy. Our new natural gas developments are in increasingly tough geological conditions – like the gas field in Pinedale, USA, where a thousand tightly-spaced wells must be drilled to reach the gas trapped in tiny pores of rock, or the Changbei tight gas project in China. Our natural gas projects are also increasingly in frontier locations. In December 2007, we took operational control of the newly-opened Ormen Lange gas field, lying nearly 3,000 metres beneath a rugged seabed in water depths of up to 1,100 metres off the Norwegian coast. The project boasts the world’s longest underwater pipeline and will eventually provide enough gas to meet 20% of the UK’s needs.
LNG leader
Cooling natural gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) shrinks it to 1/600th of its original size, so it can be transported long distances by ship. As a result, customers get a wider choice of natural gas suppliers. We’re a global leader in LNG, holding the largest share of LNG capacity of any international oil company. And by 2010 we aim to have almost doubled our capacity since 2004. In 2007, our joint venture in Nigeria expanded its capacity. Our North West Shelf venture in Australia is also expanding and the construction of Russia’s first LNG plant on Sakhalin Island is nearing completion. Together, these additions will add almost 10% to the world’s current LNG capacity. Work is also well under way on the Qatargas 4 LNG facility in Qatar. When complete, it will deliver enough natural gas annually to supply around 20 million homes.
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