Worldwide

The number of natural gas vehicles (NGV) worldwide will nearly double between now and 2020, according to a report released last week by Navigant Research. NGVs on the roadway will increase steadily from 18.2 million now to 34.9 million by 2020, Navigant said.

The number of natural gas vehicles (NGV) worldwide will nearly double between now and 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by Navigant Research. NGVs on the roadway will increase steadily from 18.2 million now to 34.9 million by 2020, Navigant said.

Natural gas generation sets (gensets) are becoming more popular for distributed power generation installations and could surpass 13 GW of capacity worldwide by 2018, according to Navigant Research.

Irving, TX-based Worldwide Energy Consortium Inc. (WEC) is set to begin the initial engineering/permitting phase for a new refinery to be located near Gardendale in La Salle County, TX.

LyondellBasell Industries, a worldwide chemical company based in the Netherlands, said it hopes to join other manufacturers in taking advantage of the abundance of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) produced from shale formations as it begins construction this month on the first of several projects to expand ethylene capacity in the United States by about 20%.

Worldwide production of shale oil has the potential to reach 14 million b/d by 2035, about 12% of the world’s total oil supply, prompting a 25-40% decline in oil prices, according to a report issued Thursday by PwC.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s profits climbed 6% year/year in 4Q2012, with annual earnings jumping 9%, despite a steep fall-off in global natural gas and oil production, the supermajor reported on Friday. Until natural gas prices are revived, the producer will direct most of North American unconventional spending on liquids and oil, the investor relations chief said Friday.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Baker Hughes Inc. said they plan to report lower-than-expected profits for the final quarter of 2012 because of a slowdown in North American drilling activity and overcapacity in pressure pumping services.

By 2025 natural gas is expected to overtake coal as the second most used fuel worldwide and North America will have transitioned to become a net energy exporter, while by 2040 global energy demand will have increased by almost 35% from 2010 levels, according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040, which was released last week.