Increasing The Competitiveness Of Natural Gas.

The gas resources are considerable. However, the development conditions of gas reservoirs are increasingly severe: 33% of the world's reserves are in the Arctic zone and in Siberia, hence a transport and competitiveness problem, despite the extent of the resources concerned and very solid advantages for gas as regards the environment.

The development of gas at a high rate, which is desirable to reduce CO2 emissions, implies in fact a high growth in the international gas trade which will involve, in many cases, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. The reduction in the long-distance transport costs and, more globally, the reduction in the costs of the LNG chain will thus greatly condition the viability of future gas projects, which might otherwise be faced with a critical situation for the competing energy sources.

Besides, all the big oil producers are interested these days in the chemical conversion of natural gas. The objective is clear: it is to produce liquid fuels of very high quality, thus greatly increasing the value of natural gas, which is necessary for the development of gas reservoirs that are isolated or far away from the consumer markets. Several industrial pilot plants have already shown the technical feasibility of this technology, but a tremendous economic challenge remains to be taken up to bring the conversion products to competitive cost levels in relation to those of fuels obtained from oil.

Getting the most energy possible from each barrel produced, by getting involved in each link of the "hydrocarbon path", so as to take part in the energy bill reduction and in a lasting consumption control, environment preservation and development policy.

Using, throughout the petroleum chain, environment-friendly technologies. Notably:

a) by giving a specific attention to transport in order to reduce the impact of the use of hydrocarbons on the environment in a sensitive sphere: pollution due to transport, in particular in urban areas.

b) by developing technologies that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in particular CO2, generated by the use of hydrocarbons. In this domain, the stakes are twofold. On the one hand, the chain leading from the consumption of hydrocarbons to climatic disturbances -mean temperature rise, CO2 content of the atmosphere, sea level rise- has to be broken. On the other hand, the use of hydrocarbons has to be made clean because it is, first of all, a social necessity, then an economic necessity. In view of the Kyoto agreement, the purchase of emission permits represents, for the economic players, potential financial "losses". The way to counter this form of activity taxation consists of investing in new processes.