Abstract
Abstract World natural gas consumption quadrupled over the 30 years from 1966 to 1996, and today it provides 22% of the total world energy demand. The security of natural gas supply is paramount and rests with the suppliers and the consumers. This paper gives an overview of world natural gas supply and demand and examines the main supply problems. The most important non predictable variables in natural gas supply are the current world-wide gas price and the current political stability, particularly in regions with high reserves. Other important considerations are the cost of development / processing and transport of the natural gas to the market: this itself can be difficult to maintain confidence if pipelines pass through areas of political instability. Another problem is that many countries lack the infrastructure and the capital needs for the effective development of their natural gas industry. Unlike oil, the cost of transportation of natural gas is very high and at present surprisingly only about 16% of the total world production is traded internationally.
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