British Petroleum expects that natural gas will take over oil as the world’s main fossil fuel energy source by the year 2040, according to a new report by Reuters.
“We see it (gas) take over from coal in the early 2030s. We think there is a very good case for gas actually overtaking oil post 2040 or just before 2040,” Dominic Energy, BP’s VP for strategic planning said during a conference in Vienna on Wednesday.
The demand growth for gas in just China alone will have a rise of 15% year-over-year, while global demand increases by 1.6% annually for a number of years. The oil demand curve, on the other hand, will slow to 0.8% growth in the meantime.
“We do see a very strong chance that (gas) is going to be the largest source of primary energy into the future… By gas we mean natural gas, but also … we mean biogas, we mean biomethane, we mean power-to-gas.”
A previous forecast by the UK based company said oil’s share of global fossil fuel markets would shrink from 33% to 30% by 2035. Most of the gains would go to natural gas, which is considered better to the environment due to lower carbon emissions.
Source: Oilprice