Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable

Education to the national gas industry

Eastern Gas
Compression Roundtable

CH4 Facts

CH4 Facts: Fertilizer

CH4 Facts Graphics

We have talked about how fossil fuels have impacted healthcare, but are there other ways natural gas impacts life expectancy? Yes, there definitely is. Let’s talk fertilizer. In the graph below, you can see how crop fertilization has fueled and supported the world population explosion. Natural gas is critical in the production of synthetic fertilizers. If you have a specific question, contact us directly or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, May 3-5, 2022 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Source: Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie (2013) – “Fertilizers”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/fertilizers’ [Online Resource]

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Pharmaceutical Prices

CH4 Facts Graphics

If healthcare is so closely tied to fossil fuels, do we see a fluctuation in healthcare cost when supply pricing of fossil fuels changes? Yes, but an even more interesting trend is what happens when the medical industry doesn’t use fossil fuels. A Kaiser study found that from 2000-2008, pharmaceutical price increases rose by approximately 114% in comparison to other medical expenditure categories. For example, hospital and patient services increased roughly 88%. During this time, the pharmaceutical industry was pursuing replacing chemical agents with biological agents in their processes. It turns out that the expense to manufacture and administer those biological agents was significantly higher. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, May 3-5, 2022 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Source: Norbeck TB. Drivers of health care costs. A Physicians Foundation white paper – second of a three-part series. Mo Med. 2013;110(2):113–118.

CH4 facts

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Transportation

CH4 Facts Graphics

Beyond medicines, plastics and climate control, are there other ways fossil fuels impact healthcare? Yes, and the biggest one is transportation. The healthcare industry depends on oil and natural gas to move patients in ambulances, deliver supplies to their facilities, and get their staff to work. Even the staff that are riding the subway in large metropolitan areas are using electricity produced with natural gas. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, May 3-5, 2022 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Pharmaceuticals from Fossil Fuels

Pharmaceuticals from fossil fuels? Yep… In 1897, a man was suffering from rheumatism-related pain. His son, Felix Hoffman, in hopes of easing his father’s pain, created aspirin by using petrochemicals. Aspirin literally became the gateway drug. Today, petrochemicals are used in most medicines — as a feed stock in production, to purify compounds, to make pill casings and coatings, and to make pharmaceutical grade, child-safe containers for the products. Petrochemicals run the gamut from historical lifesavers like penicillin and aspirin to cutting-edge chemotherapy drugs. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: NO2 Air Quality Trends

Well if CO is going down then NOx must go up, right? No, not really. Let’s take a deeper look at NOx. Levels are trending down in PPM. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nitrogen Dioxide Trends | National Air Quality: Status and Trends of Key Air Pollutants | US EPA

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: CO Levels Trending Down

Our post on fossil fuel emissions didn’t show the cumulative effects on air concentration based on those emissions. So, let’s take a deeper look at CO. Levels are trending down in PPM. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Carbon Monoxide Trends | National Air Quality: Status and Trends of Key Air Pollutants | US EPA

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Fossil Fuel Emissions

With record natural gas consumption, what about the emissions from all the fossil fuel use? Since our consumption has steadily increased, then surely our emissions have as well right? No. Actually, our emissions controls and technologies have continued to improve, resulting in reductions of emissions. If you have a specific question, send us a message, or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Chart of National Annual Emissions Trend 12
Reference: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Annual Emissions Trend (1 pg, 102 K) Criteria pollutants National Tier 1 for 1970 – 2019.

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Electrical Consumption Per Person

Our last post focused on electrical consumption per nation, but what about per person? Good question… let’s look at the data. Again, notice the fall of the USSR in the late 1980’s in the Russian data. The efficiency improvement trend of developed nations can be seen in this graph, too. If you have a specific question, send us a message or plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Graph of energy use per serson
Ritchie and Max Roser (2020) – “Energy”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/energy’ [Online Resource] United States: Energy Country Profile – Our World in Data

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973

CH4 Facts: Primary Energy Consumption

The US has been breaking records in production, but how do we compare to the rest of the world for consumption per person? Let’s look at the data. It is worth noting that population has steadily increased over this time frame, while you can see a leveling and decline in productions. Similar trends reflecting efficiency improvements can be seen in most developed nations.

Note: Look at the Russian data that shows the fall of the USSR in the late 1980’s. If you have a specific question, send us a message and plan to join us at the Eastern Gas Compression Roundtable, September 14-16, 2021 at the David Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.

Primary Energy Consumption chart measured in TWh

EGCR: Educating the Oil & Gas Industry Since 1973