Advantages of Natural Gas

It is widely available: With modern natural gas storage and transportation methods it is transported safely and efficiently all over the world and is widely and readily available.  

It is plentiful: Natural gas is a widely and naturally occurring hydrocarbon throughout the world. The existing reserves of natural that have been identified are huge and new discoveries and the continuing development of efficient and environmentally safe extraction technologies is consistently increasing the amount of available gas.

Clean: Natural gas is the cleanest of all fossil fuels, it emits minimal pollutants due to its clean burning characteristics and does not produce ash (coal) or sludge (heavy oil).

Consistent and reliable supply: Natural gas is always there when needed by consumers without the worry of blackouts, bad weather disrupting supplies or the need to order deliveries. Most natural gas equipment and appliances will operate during power outages so production can continue and households can still cook and keep warm in the winter months. Natural gas is dependable.

Advantages of Natural Gas

No storage or handling: unlike coal, oil or biomass there is any need for storage facilities, tanks or vessels with natural gas at customer’s premises. There is also no need for fuel handling equipment, pre heating equipment, conveyor belts or waste treatment and handling facilities for ash. Natural gas is conveniently delivered generally through pipes where ever and whenever required.

Competitively priced: Depending on location and volume of natural gas used by consumers it is a competitively priced fuel relative to other hydrocarbons, electricity and even many renewable energy sources (in terms of total life cycle costs). Natural gas usually saves consumers money when compared with alternatives because it is competitively priced to other fuels, is supplied with minimal energy losses from point of supply to point of use; and, is highly efficient at point of use in converting the delivered natural gas to useful energy. Ultimately the price of natural gas is determined by supply and demand as with all other energy sources. In recent years in many situations the cost of natural gas has been de-linked from oil and with ever more natural gas being produced the price of natural gas has been falling relative to inflation and other energy sources.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Efficient: Natural gas is the most efficient of all fossil fuels in combustion (and many renewable energies as well). It is also efficient in terms of the whole cycle of producing, processing, transporting and using natural gas with more than 90% of the energy produced from the gas well reaching the customers appliances.  In the case of electricity generally only 30% of the primary energy used to produce electricity reaches the customers appliances.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Economical: Consumers use the gas they need and with sophisticated control features on all modern gas equipment they are highly economical with minimal waste

Versatile, flexible and multi-purpose: Natural gas is a versatile fuel that is used to meet a whole range of diverse energy needs in the home, offices and factories. In the home for example it can heat or cool your entire home, make hot water, dry your clothes and cook your meals. New uses in the home range from fireplaces, wall mounted room heaters, air conditioning units, heat pumps, barbecues, garden lights, refrigerators, micro turbines and fuel cells to produce electricity. It also has a major role to play in transportation.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Controllable: Natural gas is the most controllable fuel in comparison with coal and oil. To illustrate this particular feature, it is the preferred fuel by professional chefs and is used extensively in the kitchens of restaurants and hotels. This is because the control tap on the cooking hob provides instant heat precisely at the level required. Unlike electric hobs there is no residual heat emitted by the hotplate once it is turned off providing instant cooking control. There is also no wastage. This simple principle applies to all natural gas equipment.

Safe: Natural gas is one of the world's safest sources of energy used by many millions of people in industry, commerce and the home. It has an enviable safety record with minimal accidents and fatalities in comparison with those incurred with coal, gasoline, electricity and paraffin. In Britain more than 20 million householders and over 15 million Canadians heat their homes and businesses with natural gas.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Low maintenance costs: Due to the clean burning characteristics of natural gas, appliances and equipment using this fuel are almost maintenance free which again saves the consumer money. As with all appliances with flues it is wise to ensure that gas boilers and fireplaces are regularly checked to ensure they do not become blocked, although apart from this precaution, modern natural gas appliances and equipment are designed to require minimal maintenance.  

Advantages of Natural Gas

It has the lowest carbon footprint of all fossil fuels and creates no environmentally negative waste such as ash and sludge. Furthermore, modern gas burning equipment such as large scale furnaces and boilers extract more useful heat and incur lower heat losses.

In the U.S. the American Gas Association studied the greenhouse impact of a typical new home. They modelled an average household by calculating what energy would be required on a full supply cycle basis. They based their analysis on heating the home, water heating, cooking and clothes drying. For the electric home they assumed the house used an electric heat pump for its heating needs. Based on this research they reported that a typical natural gas household emits 44% less greenhouse gases than an all-electric home.

Environmentally friendly: This is a major comparative advantage of natural gas in relation to other fossil fuels. The advantages exist at every step in the production, supply and utilization of natural gas. Natural gas extraction has minimal environmental impacts unlike coal, oil and biomass. The transportation of natural gas is either in the form of LNG or underground transmission pipelines that are invisible with no lasting disturbance or visual impact above ground. There are no road delivery requirements with natural gas to end users since it is delivered right to the meter in the customer's premises through underground gas distribution pipeline.It is when burned to create useful heat that natural gas creates less harmful emissions than coal, oil and biomass.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Preferred primary fuel for electricity generation: With the major environmental benefits, more efficient natural gas boilers than coal or oil fired plant, highly competitive fuel prices, the ability to build electricity generation power plant quickly and at lower cost than alternatives; and, the better safety record of gas against nuclear, natural gas is the favoured fuel for electricity generation among generating companies the world over.  

Natural gas supply infrastructure: With the reducing costs, more efficient methods, modern materials, speed of construction and no impacts on the surroundings, the deployment of underground pipeline networks to transport and supply natural gas is the least environmentally invasive fossil fuel supply method available. It is also the safest and cleanest.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Rapid deployment of natural gas: Natural gas utilization plant for steam generation, generation of electricity and many other applications can be built in modules and brought into service very quickly in comparison with other fossil fuel plant. This reduces cost, lead times and complexity of construction and operation.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Innovative natural gas supply and use: Even when natural gas pipelines are not available CNG enables natural gas to be supplied economically in bulk to medium sized users. Intelligent devices that travel through pipeline networks to do inspection and maintenance work without having to shut down the pipeline have greatly improved maintenance efficiency, safety and reduced operating costs. The gas industry is also at the forefront of research and development investment continually improving the efficiency of appliances and developing new applications for natural gas. Combined heat and power units of all sizes can now provide electricity and heat for a variety of commercial and industrial applications. The natural gas fuel cell can generate electricity; and, clean, safe and cost effective CNG for transport is becoming ever more popular.  

Advantages of Natural Gas

Disadvantages of Natural Gas

Cost of supply infrastructure: Unlike liquid petroleum gas, natural gas due to its lower density when in the gaseous state is expensive to transport and supply to end users. Ideally it requires an underground pipeline supply network. Such networks are large and expensive infrastructure projects although once completed they continue to serve energy suppliers and users silently and trouble free underground for decades.

Critical mass: With the large capital investment necessary to create natural gas supply infrastructure it is necessary to have a 'critical mass' of users in a location to justify the investment and ensure it is recovered over a number of years by service fees charged to gas customers.  Often the financial break even for such large capital projects is achieved some years after the initial investment is made and unless adequate financial returns can be achieved such investment will not be made. Often what is referred to as an 'anchor tenant' or a large user is required to kick start such investment and the gradual phased development of comprehensive local natural gas supply facilities.

Disadvantages of Natural Gas

Inflammability and safety: Natural gas is inflammable and must be supplied and used according to safe operating procedures and in approved appliances and equipment.

Energy supply security: Countries without indigenous reserves and supply of natural gas may become vulnerable to international supply disruptions. This also applies to oil and other imported commodities such as chemical feed stocks, fertilizers, various basic food and other minerals. Unlike oil and certain other essential materials such as rare earth minerals, natural gas reserves are widely distributed across the world.  The U.S. for example, a major consumer of energy, is now largely self-sufficient with natural gas. Western Europe on the other hand is partly dependent on natural gas imported by pipeline from Russia and a recent dispute with the Ukraine led to possible threats of disruptions to gas supplies. However, the supply of natural gas is now diversified and with LNG and other supply developments in recent years alternative supply arrangements are likely to be available to avert any possible supply shortages at customer's premises.

Disadvantages of Natural Gas

Environmental: Although natural gas is the least invasive of all fossil fuels from an environmental perspective, being largely methane, it does emit carbon dioxide the primary contributor to global warming. However all fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide plus a whole range of other environmentally damaging pollutants and natural gas emits significantly lower amounts of carbon dioxide than other fuels especially coal, oil and biomass.

Disadvantages of Natural Gas

Historical development of major traditional natural gas markets: In Europe, U.S. Australia and other countries with a high usage of natural gas it has taken a number of years to systematically construct countrywide natural gas supply infrastructure. Many of these historically mature gas markets were created originally many years ago with the supply of Town or coal gas through local distribution networks. The major interstate and continental high pressure gas transmission networks that now serve global gas markets were laid down largely in the last thirty or forty years. Although gas pipeline networks are major infrastructure projects they can now be constructed quickly and within a decade extensive natural gas supply facilities can be created. It can take twelve years to build a major electricity power station and even longer for nuclear energy facilities.  

Disadvantages of Natural Gas