We often lump oil and natural gas together, but in many ways they are very different products, which are used in different applications. While those of us in the petroleum industry view natural gas as an excellent, environmentally friendly energy alternative, our potential customers do not necessarily share that perspective. In some markets, natural gas has a bad image. From our perspective, natural gas is the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel and as such an excellent source of energy for electric power generation. Combustion of natural gas emits almost 30% less carbon dioxide than oil and about 45% less carbon dioxide than coal; virtually no sulfur dioxide; and up to 80% fewer nitrogen oxides than coal. Emissions of particulates from natural gas combustion are negligible. With all these advantages, we believe that customers should have a strong preference for natural gas. Nevertheless, electric utilities often see natural gas as an interim fix, with the long-term solution being clean coal technology. Many countries still depend on coal for power generation even though combustion of coal emits larger amounts of pollutants than alternatives. In the U.S., coal is used to generate 51% of the nation's electrical power. Natural gas is a distant third at about 17%, behind nuclear power with a 21% market share. Some other nations are even more dependent on coal-fired electrical generation. Poland is 97% coal dependent, while India is 78%, China 76%, and Australia 70%. Electrical generation facilities using efficient, natural gas-fired combustion turbine technology can be completed in far less time and with far less capital than other technologies. However, even as utilities are building gas-fired plants, they are looking to clean coal technologies as the preferred next-generation solution. This is reflected in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook 2005, which predicts that in the long term most new electric power plants will use clean coal technology rather than natural gas (Fig. 1). In a modern natural-gas-fired power plant, fuel accounts for almost 90% of the operating costs. In the last couple of years, U.S. natural gas prices have more than tripled (Fig. 2), reinforcing utilities' concerns about price volatility. When we look at natural gas, we see opportunities in the high prices and regional scarcity. With rising natural gas prices in North America and increasing demand in China, LNG projects have become some of the hottest games in town. Everyone is competing to sell LNG and build LNG terminals. Unfortunately, like so many other aspects of the oil industry, what is viewed as good for us is viewed as bad by the general public and our customers.