In an interview with S&P Global Vice President Darryl Rogers during CERAWeek, Williams president and CEO Alan Armstrong said natural gas is critical to the clean energy future, both in the U.S. and abroad, while protecting national security at home.

Natural gas is reliable, does not require subsidies and reduces emissions by displacing more carbon-intensive sources of energy, he said.

“The fourth benefit of it obviously is national security, and all of a sudden, we’re all very conscious of that given the situation in Europe,” he said. “Looking forward to 2040, we are going to be leaning very heavily on natural gas.

“The good news is, as we do that, we can reduce emissions. Clearly here in the US, we’ve got a great track record of reducing emissions on the back of natural gas.”

Armstrong said Williams’ infrastructure is uniquely positioned to move LNG to global markets.

“We can do a lot to bring LNG to the world. We’ve got the Haynesville play that in the short term is going to be a big supplier of LNG. The Permian gas, associated gas, coming out of the Permian as well will be growing.”

Armstrong attributed Williams’ success to an engaged and passionate workforce.

“One of the things that I’m a big believer in is that you need to have an organization that has great passion about what they do and attracting millennials into this. We do a lot of training and explanation to our workforce to talk about what an incredible tool natural gas is, to actually right here, right now, affect climate change.”