The Versatility Of Natural Gas — Resources, Prices, And Future Valuations.

The Versatility Of Natural Gas — Resources, Prices, And Future Valuations.

Natural gas has a checkered history. Recently it has been connected with rising prices, good for the oil and gas industry, but accompanied by gas shortages in Europe, and especially in the UK, that are likely to worsen as winter approaches — not good for industry that depends on gas nor the consumer. In the middle of this sits a political situation involving Russia, Europe, and the US. Russia supplies 43% of Europe's natural gas and a new pipeline is being bult under the Baltic Sea to supply Europe with even more gas. This is important because natural gas, as a bridge fuel, is likely to outlast coal and oil in the age of global warming. Natural gas was not discovered by the USA. By 100 BC the Chinese were able to drill boreholes a foot wide and lined with bamboo tubing down to five thousand feet. Using bamboo pipelines, wells produced natural gas that was burned to heat iron pans of salt water to yield salt1. Conventional gas comes from vertical wells drilled into sandstone or limestone reservoirs where the permeability is high enough for gas to flow easily to a well. But by the 1970s gas production was