A.G. Gancarski
On Friday morning, the Florida Energy Summit closed with a discussion of “leveraging the energy sector for a better Florida.”
That leveraging, said panelists, encompasses everything from compressed natural gas to offshore oil exploration.
Moderated by Anddrikk Frazier, the Principal of Integral Energy, the panel included Kevin Worley of JAX LNG, Paul Glenister of 2G Energy, Gary Steffens of Shell, and Tom Nepute of Saddle Creek Transportation.
Frazier noted that the panel had “over 100 years of experience” in the energy industry, and “knowledge would be dropped.”
JAX LNG technology, said Worley, will be used to, among other things, power 4 cargo ships, including two from TOTE Maritime (in the news recently for the El Faro tragedy).
The advantage of LNG: a significant reduction in emissions.
“Once you start burning LNG and natural gas,” related Worley, “it’s easy to meet [emissions] requirements.”
As well, JAX LNG is preparing construction of an LNG plant in Jacksonville, right across the river from Blount Island, which will service the TOTE vessel.
From there, the company is mulling other distribution options downstate.
Paul Glenister, who came from the United Kingdom, came to discuss 2G, a manufacturer of “combined heat and power.”
The company has a 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility in St. Augustine, as part of its mission to create jobs in North America.
Their product is suitable, claimed Glenister, for many applications ranging from industrial plants and landfills to retirement homes and swimming pools.
It is, as expected, more efficient and less environmentally impactful than other forms of energy.
The company applies CHG to client requirements, and offers a worldwide service market, including everything from a plant manufacturing window shutters in Texas onward.
Reducing energy costs, he added, helps keep manufacturers onshore.
Saddle Creek Transportation’s Tom Nepute was up next, to talk about his company’s “innovations.”
The Lakeland company handles warehousing, transportation, and contract fulfillment.
It is the largest privately held trucking company with CNG in the country.
“CNG works very well when you’re going in and out of Lakeland and Jacksonville,” he said regarding the company’s Florida transport, facilitated by CNG stations.
The company keeps refining its tractors’ deployment of CNG technology, which is in its sixth generation since 2012.
As well, the company is developing and deploying “dual fuel” tractors, which augments CNG technology with diesel backup.
One wrinkle with CNG fillups for fleet vehicles is that “time fill,” which takes all night, allows for more CNG to be tanked, as the slower dispensing allows for greater compression than “fast fill.”
Batting cleanup, Shell’s Gary Steffens, a senior geological adviser with over 35 years of experience.
“Jacksonville is in a great position to be the energy hub,” Steffens said, “for a good part of the East Coast.”
To that end, Shell seeks to “unlock the Atlantic’s energy potential.”
Citing being a grandfather of six, Steffens sees what may be along the Atlantic coast as important to fulfilling long-term energy security needs.
The time is now, said Steffens, to “explore and search for oil and gas” offshore.
American oil and gas, he adds, equates to American jobs. Yet it must happen “safely” or “not at all.”
The goals are long term: the first product may not manifest for a decade to fifteen years.
With two billion more people expected to be on earth in 35 years, energy demand will increase… up to 80 percent, said Steffens.
Consumption has doubled, he added, in the last 35 years.
“We still do have to think about the future,” Steffens said, “with regard to what our energy mix might be,” citing “storage capacity” for alternative fuels like solar and wind.
The company would like to explore offshore, past a 50 mile buffer zone off the coast, thousands of feet below the surface, yet 87 percent of capacity is currently off-limits for development.
Meanwhile, he adds, “almost every single country” in the Atlantic basin is “considering or at least reviewing” resource potential off its shores.
These are long-term initiatives; if a lease were secured in 2021, product may not manifest until 2035.
The benefits, said Steffens, manifest in terms of up to 280,000 “new American jobs,” and an uptick of up to $200 billion in government revenue.
“Safety is our number one priority at Shell,” said Steffens, and “consequences can be very severe” for safety scofflaws.
“I know I want for my grandchildren long after I’m gone energy security,” Steffens said, but not at the expense of environmental concerns.
Expectations are that the Interior Department will make a decision on offshore exploration by Q1 2017, and Steffens adds that that process is necessarily “political.”
With shale oil and other production on the upswing, he added, the “United States is in a nice position,” yet it would be augmented with offshore production.
After the panel, JAX Chamber President Daniel Davis offered closing remarks.
“Jacksonville is a very exciting, forward thinking place,” Davis said, adding that “logistics,” as one of Jacksonville’s strengths, will allow the Chamber to “be a leader in this” and “help move this ball down the field.”
“We love you. We want you to move to Jacksonville,” Davis added, “and we are going to be the East Coast hub for energy. The next five years will be transformational.”
After the event, FloridaPolitics.com caught up with Davis, who expanded on these comments.
Describing the impact of the energy industry on Jacksonville as “transformational,” Davis said that the “energy community is strong and growing.”
When asked if he knew if City Hall economic incentives for the industry were in play, Davis was less specific.
“I don’t want to take anything off the table,” he said, but “the market is demanding this take place.”
What is clear: Jacksonville’s near term future is yoked to the energy sector in all of its forms.
