National Geographic: Greening Natural Gas Delivery – LNG versus Pipelines

The recent tension between Ukraine and Russia has highlighted the significance of energy infrastructure as a diplomatic tool. Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas through pipelines has alerted Europe to the danger of such infrastructure dependence. However, it is still worth noting that despite all the saber-rattling, the gas is still flowing, and as some analysts have argued there is mutual interest on transactional cooperation in this regard.

Proponents of LNG gas delivery are using this political situation as a time to emphasize the resilience of mobile gas delivery systems as opposed to pipelines. However, before we take a leap too far down the LNG route, let us consider the ecological aspects of gas delivery mechanisms more closely.

While much has been written on the carbon footprint of oil versus natural gas, scant attention is often paid to the transport and delivery of either fuel. In comparison to oil, which is largely transported worldwide by a fleet of more than 38,000 marine tankers, 93% of the world’s gas continues to be supplied through pipelines.

Over sixty countries have on average 2000 km of pipeline for gas transmission within their borders and about 10,000 kms of new pipelines are planned for this decade, often traversing difficult terrain and deep marine waters.
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