
The emergence of shale gas has revolutionized the natural gas market in the US. There are now large quantities of domestic natural gas available, which can turn the US to a gas exporter, in sharp contrast to import anticipations of only a few years ago. The global importance of natural gas is also expected to grow significantly because of its reduced environmental burden when used for power generation. This provides additional incentives for monetizing natural gas from various sources, including dry or associated gas from offshore or remote locations.
The focus of this research Center is on natural gas monetization, including
- dry and associated gas management (particularly important for offshore locations),
- gas transportation (the limiting factor for a global natural gas market), and
- underground gas storage (important in a market where inelastic supply and demand may differ considerably).
The activities of this Center, situated in the midstream sector, complement long and widespread activities on gas exploration & production (upstream) or natural gas treatment and conversion to petrochemicals (downstream).