Economic and Political Factors Bearing on NGH Commercialization

Abstract

Primary factors that will inhibit the production of natural gas from NGH are the ‘stranded’ character of any deepwater gas or oil from the continental slope regions of the Arctic Ocean and the absence of any production and transport infrastructure through which the gas can be brought to market. We suggest that special regulations governing NGH can be written that will allow for a lower level of risk than for any conventional gas resource while dispensing with much of the expensive regulation associated with conventional gas exploration and production. This would have an enabling effect on production from NGH through dramatically lowering the cost of exploration and production.