Rafael Sandrea: A new look at natural gas reserves

From the Financial Times' energysource:

Natural gas is considered the queen of the fossil fuels mainly because it is the cleanest of them all and the world is in transit to a low carbon economy. This has led to an abnormally high increase in gas production as energy demand shifts towards this resource for power generation and natural gas vehicles. This is particularly true in the industrialized countries, partly because there is a perception that there are abundant supplies of natural gas. In fact, natural gas is the world’s fastest growing fossil energy source, contributing almost 50 million barrels a day of oil equivalent and acting as the principal supplier to industry, petrochemical feedstock, agriculture, and residential and commercial uses. These sectors now account for two-thirds of the natural gas consumed.

On a global scale, however, this valuable resource stands for less than one-fifth of the total oil and gas resources discovered so far, making it more compelling that we have to conserve it as much as possible....

...Production from North America and Western Europe, the two largest consumers, will be dropping off by 2030 and the key to meet a world demand of 425 bcfd lies in the Middle East. They would have to triple their current production capacity. This is a 5-star increase that would come primarily from Qatar and Iran. Eurasia, mainly Russia and Turkmenistan, would have to increase its capacity by 30 per cent. The Middle East and Eurasia would jointly account for half of the world’s gas production by 2030....MORE

For of by [huh?] Dr. Rafael Sandrea’s work on global oil and gas resources see: “An In-Depth View of Future World Oil & Gas Supply - A Quantitative Model” which is available online through PennEnergy: http://www.pennenergy.com/index/oil-model.html