Drillers have proven during the past decade that

getting the gas out of shale reservoirs can be done, but getting people to use the stuff is proving more difficult.

Increasing demand – likely through natural gas vehicles – was a frequent topic at an energy conference in downtown Fort Worth last week.

“If you look around the world, natural gas vehicles are the fastest-growing alternative to petroleum,” said Richard Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America, speaking at Hart Energy Publishing’s annual Developing Unconventional Gas Conference & Exhibition.

Natural gas vehicles, or NGVs, have been popular in other parts of the world, but less so in the United States. Of the more than 9.6 million NGVs on the road worldwide, about 110,000 are on U.S. roads. Comparatively, Pakistan leads the world with 2 million vehicles, followed by Argentina and Brazil at 1.75 million and 1.59 million vehicles, respectively, according to the International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles.

Italian vehicle manufacturer Fiat sold more than 100,000 vehicles in Italy alone last year, Kolodziej said.

Technological advancements in shale drilling produced more gas than many imagined possible. That fact, combined with decreased demand due to the global recession, has created a gas glut, which natural gas proponents say could be relieved by increasing the fuel’s use in power generation and transportation.

Light-duty sedans are the majority of natural gas vehicles worldwide; however, U.S. natural gas proponents should focus on getting more “high fuel-use urban vehicles” on the road, such as delivery trucks, refuse trucks, buses and taxis, Kolodziej said.

“Later on we can talk about expanding into the consumer market,” he said.

The Metroplex Natural Gas Vehicle Consortium, formed last fall, is a group of natural gas proponents that aims to create a series of natural gas “hubs” – or cities with significant natural gas-fueling infrastructure and support – across Texas, beginning in Fort Worth, and perhaps into Oklahoma and Louisiana. (The more than 50 members include the Texas Christian University Energy Institute, the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, Clean Energy Fuels and some area gas operators, to name a few.)

Ken Morgan, director of the Texas Christian University Energy Institute and one-half of the brains behind the consortium’s inception, said government incentives are the final piece of the puzzle to transform “pent-up interest” into reality. Morgan already has spoken with Gov. Rick Perry twice and is trying to meet with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to encourage legislators to support more fueling stations.

“We’re going to go meet in Austin, in May or June, to see if we can’t get the state to initiate some incentive programs to merely make the investment pay off,” said Morgan, adding incentive programs already exist in Oklahoma and Louisiana. “If we can get more help on funding the infrastructure, I think that’s the main domino to make things really start to happen.”

There are 1,100 natural gas refueling stations in the United States, less than half of the number of stations in Pakistan. There are less than 20 stations in Texas compared with more than 180 stations in California.

Morgan cites the public’s concern with air quality issues as another driving force behind the consideration of more natural gas fueling stations.

“We are non-compliant, so the mayor here is very interested,” he said.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., one of the main sponsors of last week’s conference, collected about 10 vehicles to illustrate the fuel’s diversity; natural gas can be used in big vehicles (a Tulsa Public Schools school bus, International distribution truck and a Lake Jackson, Texas refuse truck, manufactured by Autocar), small cars (a Ford Focus, Chevrolet Impala sedan taxi), and in between (a Ford E320 van used by AT&T, Chevrolet Silverado truck).

Every major vehicle manufacturer makes a commercial-use natural gas-fueled vehicle – General Motors makes nine NGVs – but only Honda sells its NGV in the United States.

“You’re making [the natural gas],” Kolodziej said to a room full of people, many of whom worked for natural gas producers. “We’ve got to figure out how to use it.”

Buck