Big Oil promoting gas as successor to coal

London

OIL companies that have pumped trillions of barrels of crude from the ground are now saying the future is in their other main product: natural gas, a fuel they're promoting as the logical successor to coal.

With almost 200 nations set to hammer out a binding pact on carbon emissions in December, fossil-fuel companies led by Royal Dutch Shell plc and Total SA say they're refocusing on gas as a cleaner alternative to the cheap coal that now dominates electricity generation worldwide. That's sparked a war of words between the two industries and raised concern that Big Oil is more interested in grabbing market share than fighting global warming.