NATURAL GAS:
Diversity for Profit "The current and future natural gas shortage may be a blessing in disguise. It offers the opportunity for gas companies to diversify into more profitable areas than just selling gas, which has been the aim of most gas companies since W W II." This was the message the Institute of Gas Technology gave its member companies at its annual meeting 11 days ago in Chicago. The attention-getting, mixed-media presentation by officers of IGT and the American Gas Association was titled "Planning for Tomorrow's Energy Business. ,, At the risk of simplification the message can be summed up in two under-30-type words: get involved— in gas exploration, in providing comfort and convenience for customers, and in solving social and political problems, such as pollution. Getting involved will mean increased profitability by becoming an integrated total energy company and not just a marketer of natural gas, was the repeated message of the Institute of Gas Technology. Dr. Henry R. Linden, director of IGT, explains that the natural gas shortage is an economic problem, not a supply problem. The problem is the artificially low price for natural gas, which is regulated by the Federal Government, he says. The low price has discouraged exploration for gas reserves and does not reflect the current economic realities of a 13 cents per million Btu price advantage of natural gas when sulfur control of coal or residual oil is taken into account. Vertical integration into both gas exploration and coal gasification and into such areas as appliance and equipment manufacturing, leasing, sales, and maintenance is probably the best route for increasing profitability, Thomas J. Joyce, IGT associate director of management sciences, says. In 1967 only 8.3% of the gas supplies were owned by gas companies. "We should not have to depend on our competitors (oil companies) for gas supplies, he says. Integration from the well or coal mine to beyond the burner tip to become a total energy company is a goal that gas companies will need to achieve to keep their stockholders satisfied and provide the services their customers will demand, he adds. Gas companies need to upgrade the value of their product, Dr. Robert B. Rosenberg, IGT assistant director of engineering research told the meeting. At the same time, he says, the companies must expand their ability to serve the public. One method is to 14 C&EN DEC. 1, 1969
use reformed natural gas—hydrogen. The reformed gas can be catalytically ignited and burned at controlled temperatures as low as 250° F. while yielding only water vapor as a product of combustion, he points out.
THE SEA:
Search for Drugs "Wet Space," Lederle Laboratories calls its new program to hunt for potential drugs in the sea. Starting the search through the oceans, the division of American Cyanamid is entering a field which, though hardly under way, has already produced potential drugs in antibiotic and other areas. Observers of oceanography predict a steep rise in biologically active compounds isolated from the sea. Early this year the Report of the Commission on Marine Science, Engineering, and Resources—"Our Nation and the Sea"—strongly recommended that a National Institute of Marine Medicine and Pharmacology be set up in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The report added that practically no research is now being conducted by government or industry on marine bioactive substances as possible new sources of pharmaceutical products. The Lederle program's prime objective is the isolation and evaluation of plant and animal marine life to develop new therapeutic agents. Current collection of specimens centers in the Caribbean, but the division is also planning underwater collections in the Pacific, including the Philippines and the Great Barrier Reef. This work will supplement traditional botanical and other searches for new drugs. The older explorations, through materials such as bread molds and soils, led to penicillin, tetracycline, and other important market drugs. Marine specimens for "Wet Space" are frozen, dried, or suspended in a preserving liquid, such as ethanol, and shipped to Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.Y. At Lederle, scientists process the specimens to obtain crude extracts, which are probed for biological activity in a variety of tests, including checks for antibacterial activity and activity against a wide spectrum of human disease. Promising extracts are purified and separated into chemical components. The components are identified by xray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectroscopy, and other techniques. An example of what can come out of marine screening is the work in Brooklyn, N.Y., by the Osborn Labo-
Diving for Cyanamid Quest for new drugs
ratories' of Marine Sciences, New York Aquarium, New York Zoological Society. Under director Ross F. Nigrelli the laboratory runs extensive deep-sea collections and analyses. So far, the research group has uncovered potential antibiotics, steroid saponins, and a growth inhibitor. Some samples have gone to the National Institutes of Health for screening, although most of the laboratories' efforts are in the basic research stage. The picture of marine drugs is changing fast. With just one important drug discovery, the current marine screening programs could turn into an all-points scramble as major pharmaceutical companies, now on the sidelines, join in.
OIL IMPORTS:
A Change in Tariffs As C&EN went to press last week, U.S. petrochemical producers were anxiously eyeing Washington for official confirmation or denial of recently published reports that a cabinet-level White House task force will recommend abolishing quotas in favor of a new system of preferential tariffs on oil imports. But while confirming that release of the report on its exhaustive eight-month investigation of U.S. oil import policy was "imminent," the task force as late as close of day Tuesday would give no official inkling as to its findings and recommendations. Source of the petrochemical industry's anxiety was an article in last Monday's Wall Street Journal which said that the task force had reached "an informal agreement" to recommend to President Nixon that the controversial import quota system be scrapped and replaced with preferential tariffs.
