Major U.S. natural gas associations, which more often than not have been adversaries during the past decade, are establishing a new organization to promote gas use.
The main goal of the Natural Gas Council, composed of senior executives from all segments of the gas industry, will be to encourage the use of an additional 2.5 tcf/year during the next 5 years.
Forming the council were the American Gas Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Natural Gas Supply Association, and Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
WHAT'S PLANNED
The council will coordinate a multimillion dollar program that includes marketing, public relations, advertising, government relations, and educational programs by the council and the four associations.
The groups said, "We agree that the full potential of natural gas can be realized only by working together to promote awareness of the unique attributes of the fuel and to deliver superior value to customers."
The council released a state of the industry report that made a strong case for increased gas use.
It noted the gas industry has been reborn. Not only has Congress deregulated gas prices, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission largely deregulated gas transportation, but also the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments will place new emphasis on the use of clean burning gas.
It said U.S. gas reserves are more than ample. "Any lingering anxiety about gas supply reliability is a misapprehension left over from the earlier period of counter productive regulation of wellhead prices."
And it stressed gas deliverability also has been greatly improved. Pipeline projects totaling more than 11,000 miles and 25 bcfd were in various stages of development last year, underground storage capacity has been expanded, and now the delivery network is controlled by state of the art computerized operations centers that allow immediate responses to seasonal, daily, and even hourly swings in gas demand.
Formation of the Natural Gas Council was inevitable.
Even before the days of the divisive Natural Gas Policy Act, legislation and economics placed producers and pipelines on opposite sides of a very tall fence.
And in the past decade, struggles in Congress to decontrol gas and in FERC to restructure the pipeline industry kept the gas groups at odds because millions of dollars could hang on the wording of a sentence.
WORKING TOGETHER
As those struggles ended, the gas groups found themselves with the common problems of low prices and sagging demand. Increasingly in the past 2 years producers and pipelines have joined forces on issues.
For example, they worked in tandem to propose gas pipeline reforms for inclusion in the omnibus energy bill. And pipelines supported independent producers in their efforts to win relief from the alternative minimum tax.
The four groups still have many divergent interests, a reflection of their distinct memberships, but they have one overriding concern in common: increasing gas sales.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
