2010, my wife and I were confronted with the fact that our older son was diagnosed with Autism. It changed my life beyond anything I ever imagined. At the time, I was a high-powered manager in a gas trading company – scouring the globe for deals. Heading the Business Development department, I was THE entrepreneur of the company and made the department a laboratory for all kinds of new business. It was the bomb shelter where anything could be tried in relative safety.
It was an exciting job, but it also made me rack up huge amounts of air miles. I spent more time abroad than at home and with an autistic boy, I just could not do it anymore. I needed to change for my kid.
In 2011, I quit my safe job and set out on my own. Going back into management was not an option as it would have defeated the purpose of my change, so I went consulting and training, starting the PitBull of LNG blog in 2012 which was reintegrated into this website in 2019. Gradually, I got into the writing business. It was a very hard ride with many bruises and near crashes but in the end, it made me what I am today.
My son’s autism also made me even more of a die-hard fan of Methane gas than I had been already. Its clean properties as well as its commercial attractiveness and its usability convinced me that this must be the backbone of the future energy world. Especially its liquid state LNG intrigued me as it presented all the advantages of diesel, but was truly clean.
I learned that one of the leading causes of autism is fine particulate matter especially the aluminum load they carry. Burning methane does not cause this deadly dust – diesel does. Got this? Here is my motivation.
However, there is more to that. I am the scion of a family of small entrepreneurs. My grandfather was a carpenter with his own little business, my father a tailor running his shop, and countless members of the wider family plus two of my brothers were running their businesses. I always liked and respected this tradition. People driving their fate – making something with their hands out of nothingness. The pinnacle of Homo Economicus. I wanted to be part of the pack, so setting sail with my own business just came naturally to me, and in some sense, it is the culmination of a lifelong dream.
Last but not least, I am a writer. Just as a tailor makes either functional or beautiful clothing out of mere tissue or a carpenter transforms wood into true miracles, I like to handicraft words to sow the seeds of a new energy world that is clean, sustainable, and cheap enough for everyone to prosper. And LNG is at the heart of it as it’s energy-dense, easy to handle, safe, and technologically mature in every sense.
E-mobility does not work with anything bigger than a regular personal car and it comes with huge cost premiums to cover. Methane covers the whole spectrum of human activities and economically so.
I am the loudest, most obnoxious, most abrasive, and in-your-face cheerleader, Methane, Biogas, Shale, Methane Hydrates, Natural Gas and LNG ever had. And I won’t stop before diesel, coal, and even gasoline have become meaningless fringe fuels and the world runs on Natural Gas. It won’t happen in one year, but I am in this for the long haul. That’s all you need to know about me.