API CEO on the future of the oil and gas industry

API President and CEO Jack Gerard told a Los Angeles audience on May 17 that the US oil and natural gas industry is ready to invest more, create more jobs, increase government revenue and produce more energy, but that it can only do so with more access to the nation’s energy resources.

‘There’s no other way to see it, the oil and natural gas industry fuels the economy,’ Gerard said in a keynote address at a Los Angeles World Affairs Council meeting. ‘The future is going to require a lot of energy, of all kinds. World energy consumption is projected to grow nearly 50% by 2035.

‘For the sake of our future, we need renewable energy technology to grow,’ he said. ‘But, the reality is that we will rely on oil and natural gas for meeting over half of our energy for decades to come. And doing more at home will help put downward pressure on global oil prices, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, trillions of dollars for our government, and strengthen our energy security.’

Gerard noted that in California, the oil and natural gas industry compares in size to the motion picture and TV industry. Motion pictures and TV directly employ 210 000 people, compared to about 164 000 employees directly employed by oil and natural gas. But oil and natural jobs gas jobs tend to deliver higher salaries, paying US$ 19 billion in total wages yearly, more than the film and TV industry’s US$ 16.7 billion in wages.

‘Our economy is struggling and our industry has the power to help,’ said Gerard. ‘We could invest more, create more jobs, increase revenue to our government and produce more of what we consume. But we don’t have enough access to our nation’s ample reserves to make this happen.

‘We are ready to get back to work. We need to get back to work.’

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/20052011/api_ceo_on_the_future_of_the_oil_and_gas_industry/