Natural gas has become a bridge fuel on the road to decarbonization. Emits less dioxide that coal or oil when used to generate electricity, and in a world that is hitting the Volantazo to renewable energiesgas has established itself as a vital element. Reason? Is being used to feed the voracious data centers And, in addition, it is A geopolitical element. And there, countries with the largest natural gas reserves have a lot to say.
And that mixture between natural and geopolitical resources can be seen perfectly in this graph elaborated by Visual Capitalist:
The powers. Russia, Iran and Qatar are the indisputable powers when we talk about natural gas reserves. The United States stays close, but the first three, according to these data from the US Energy Information AdministrationThey represent 51% of those world reserves. And the first ten countries, which are represented in the graphic, accumulate 83% of the total natural gas.
Russia is the clear clear, with twice more than Qatar and almost tripling the reserves of the United States. The closest is Iran, Another oil power.
Protagonist role. And who controls gas, controls a large percentage of the world energy cake. It is estimated that, currently, natural gas represents 23% of the global energy mix. This depends on the country, of course, but one of the largest whales is the United States and there represents 40% of the electricity generation.
The reasons are the amount of and efficiency, being your Great advantage which is the most ‘dispatchable’ energy source. It can be activated and deactivated easily and, in a matter of minutes, operates with a capacity greater than 80% to satisfy demand peaks. In addition, what we have already commented: its emissions Co₂ are approximately 50% lower than coal and 30% lower than oil.
Trend. The graph represents the status of reservations in 2023, but with more recent data, we see that it is still an essential fuel:
- Natural gas meant 33% of the increase in world energy supply.
- The demand for natural gas in 2024 increased 2.5%.
- Electric generation from natural gas also grew by 2.5%.
- Natural gas production increased 1.2%.
- And world trade by gas pipeline and LNG increased by 3.3%, being the first time it grows from 2021.
Geopolitics. And that only a few countries have such an essential fuel for the rest, it implies that it is a source of economic, diplomatic power and, in times of crisis, also a weapon. In Europe we have witnessed this from two different fronts. Before 2022, near the 40% of European natural gas was Russian. The invasion of Ukraine caused a series of cuts in the supply and Russia He used it as a weapon in the contest‘drying’ the countries of the European Union that supported Ukraine.
This has led the EU to rethink your energy safetydiversifying energy sources and investing in infrastructure such as those of the Green Hydrogen Corridor. And, in this situation, the US has gained weight becoming the largest gas exporter to Europe, using this resource in the Tariff trade war.
Artificial intelligence. Beyond politics, this ability to satisfy demand peaks is something that is erecting natural gas as the most important fuel today. Data centers require something called “operational reliability”, or what is the same: they cannot stop working and They cannot depend on renewable energieswhich may have intermittent periods of activity, be their only energy source.
In addition, at certain times of computational demand peaks, They need a huge amount of immediate energyand that is where natural gas can meet that demand. The energy need for these is such Data macrocentros that there are companies that are choosing to take over nuclear energy plants to meet your needs.
Gas for a while. The natural gas is a complex scenario because, although we want to get rid of it in favor of renewable energies, factors such as its energy advantage and strategic pacts favor that it is rope for a while. The projections indicate That the energy demand of data centers only in the United States will grow from 180-290 twh from 2024 to 515-720 TWH in 2030. In the rest of the world, It will pass of the 415 TWH to 945 TWH in 2030.
Globally, other analysis They point to an increase in that 50% demand by 2027 and up to 165% by 2030. Beyond the needs of the data centers, it is wait An increase of 32% in the world demand for natural gas by 2050, being Africa and Asia the main driving regions of this growing demand due to electrification and industrialization needs.
These estimates can go to the fret if a Unexpected increase in renewables Thanks to new technologies or more efficient solutionss, or if the panorama of the data centers changes, but what is evident is that the Camino to decarbonization You will have to live with natural gas.
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