In one of the busiest Decembers ever for oil and gas in the nation's capital, one word-infrastructure-kept popping up as a key challenge for 2015.
"Our resource estimates have more than doubled since 2002. Production is approaching 71 bcfd-a record," Natural Gas Supply Association Pres. Dena E. Wiggins said during a Natural Gas Roundtable North American gas outlook discussion at the Canadian Embassy on Dec. 9, 2014.
"We need infrastructure to get this gas to market," she noted. "There's a lot of new pipeline going into the ground."
Concerns have been raised over local disruptions from construction of more gas transmission capacity, Wiggins said. "I think people need to be convinced there are benefits to putting more pipe in the ground," she said.
Nine days later, US Sec. of Energy Ernest G. Moniz said the Obama administration's Quadrennial Energy Review would produce its first major report in January dealing with…infrastructure.
One early finding was that associated systems, mainly rail and water, "matter more than we thought," he said during a discussion of the International Energy Agency's latest periodic review of US energy policies at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Another is that the country's gas systems "are in better shape than we thought, although there are regional issues," Moniz said. Infrastructure must become sufficiently resilient to keep working during major weather events, he said.
Finally, American Petroleum Institute Pres. Jack N. Gerard minced no words when it came to US infrastructure's significance during his 2015 State of American Energy address on Jan. 6.
"One of the few areas most often mentioned where both political parties largely agree is on the need to invest in our nation's aging energy infrastructure," he said. "Our electrical grid, roads, pipelines and rail freight lines do not have a political affiliation. Our decisions to improve them should be equally apolitical, particularly those built by the private sector."
Major economic gains
Infrastructure upgrade investments would generate massive economic gains, Gerard asserted. "An analysis from the IHS consulting group found that essential infrastructure improvements in just oil and gas could, over the next decade, encourage as much as $1.15 trillion in new private investment, support 1.15 million new jobs, and add $120 billion/year on average to our nation's gross domestic product," he said.
"This level of infrastructure investment eclipses the pending highway bill," Gerard said. "Together, they could create thousands of well-paying jobs and improve our nation's economic competitiveness. We should look beyond bridges and roads at pipelines and rail systems."
There's no getting around it: Many energy leaders are thinking hard about infrastructure issues as 2015 gets under way.