The global trend to replace traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil with clean burning gas has been spurred on largely by heightened environmental concerns and international commitments to comply with noxious emission limits. The physical and combustion characteristics of natural gas are able to respond to these environmental concerns, thus providing highly industrialized nations in particular with a means to meet the requirements of international environmental agreements. The use of natural gas also includes the important advantage of high efficiency in gas-to-electricity conversion, a factor central to developing nations. Both the above have created a new demand sector for natural gas, which is reflected in the substantial growth of internationally traded gas over the last decade.

This volume covers topics ranging from the commercial opportunities and constraints relating to natural gas exploitation - and its implications for the global oil industry - to the emerging gas technologies that are likely to chart its future development. The book also assesses the impact of government regulation and liberalization on the industry, from the Canadian and European perspectives, as well as regional developments in the Asian market, thus presenting a broad vision of past and future trends in the natural gas industry.