HOUSTON, March 11 (UPI) -- Natural gas development will play an important role not only in the economy but also in efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, executives said in Houston.
Tom Walters, the president of Exxon Mobil, said that despite tough economic times, natural gas demand was expected to increase.
"We expect global energy demand to increase nearly 30 percent in the next 20 years," he said. "By 2030, global gas demand will be around 140 billion cubic feet per day higher than 2009 (levels)."
Power generation, he said, would eat up 50 percent of the global gas demand. The success of natural gas development, however, is dependent on "open markets" that would allow "unbiased" use of alternative natural resources.
Natural gas, he added, is a clean source of energy that can feed the world's growing energy consumption.
"Natural gas is a cleaner burning source of fuel and power generation that over the next 20 years will continue to form an increasingly important role in the global energy mix," he said.
His comments came during the plenary session the CERAWeek 2010 conference in Houston.
