Gas Reserves and Production

This chapter investigates the first phase in the natural gas chain: production. Since this topic is closely connected with that of natural gas reserves, we decided to analyse reserves and production together. The first paragraph explores world and regional reserve trends from a long term perspective. The second focuses on natural gas production and its regional trends, again from a long term perspective, ranging from 1980 to 2030. In the last section we consider emerging and declining countries in terms of natural gas production and examine the estimates of the major international agencies.

Natural gas production rose sharply in the last ten years to satisfy the increasing demand of Europe, North America and the developed Asian countries, as well as to feed the economies of the newcomers in the Far East. Advances in technology have brought greater efficiency of production and a higher success rate in exploration. Discoveries of new fields have more than replaced the gas consumed, while the extremely high oil prices have led companies to develop very expensive projects in the Arctic (Norway, Canada, Russian Federation), in deep and ultra deep offshore sites and for the exploitation of non-conventional gas (in particular in North America). Proven reserves in 2006 are estimated at around 180,000 bcm and many experts in the sector believe that, with adequate gas prices and growth in E&P technologies, this number could double.