Examing the Key Differences Between Natural Gas Markets in Three Distinct Regions: North America, Europe and Asia

Natural gases are the most important source of energy in the modern world of technology and electricity production, which makes the skyrocketing gas production in the U.S. due to hydraulic fracturing incredibly valuable in terms of global trade and economy. The United States has always been reliant on the Middle East and other European and Asian countries for energy, but is very quickly becoming energy independent. "By 2020, the Energy Information Administration predicts that the USA will become a net exporter of natural gas", reaching energy independence from other countries and starting to export gas to provide revenue and pay off debts (Hassett and Mathur). Even

Lynne Kiesling. “ Why Are Gas Prices High and Rising.” 23 Mar 2004. Knowledge Problem. 20 FEB 2013. .

Mother Nature gave us natural resources to patronize and natural gas is one of them. Small quantities of ethane, propane, butane and pentane are found in the natural gas composition but it is mostly made up of methane. The high volume of pipeline gas makes it difficult for it to be transported in its gaseous form. This is the reason why the oil industry is dominating because of how easy it can be transported. Pipelines are suitable for transporting pipeline natural gas but constructing the suitable infrastructure is very expensive and not technically feasible for global transportation.1 In addition, for you to be able to make it in the gas industry you need trading partners to buy your natural gas. Having said that, one can deduce that the only way to make a

Almost 95 million barrels of oil and fuel are produced each day in order to provide energy and fuel to people the world over. A major component of the oil industry is the transportation of oil through various means including oil pipelines. These pipelines are capable of transporting thousands of barrels of oil thousands of miles per day. In the United States one possible pipeline has caused a lot of controversy and discussion on the impact it will have on the United States. The difficulty in deciding if the Keystone XL Pipeline should be built is in whether the possibility of economic growth outweighs the possibility of environmental destruction. In order to make a decision, one must first look into the history of oil pipelines. It is crucial

But not everywhere is fracking a viable extraction technique. Blackwill and O’sullivan’s paper states, “The fracking revolution required more than just favourable geology; it also took financiers with a tolerance for risk, a property-rights regime that let landowners claim underground resources, a network of service providers and delivery infrastructure, and an industry structure characterized by thousands of entrepreneurs rather than a single national oil company.” The paper declares that although many countries around the world have the shale gas, aside from the USA and Canada, no other countries have the right industrial environment in order to have hydraulic fracturing expand as rapidly.

the development of horizontal drilling and seam fracturing or fracking technology has allowed the exploitation of coal seam and shale gas reserves that previously were difficult if not impossible to tap. At the same time, a combination of factors in Asian energy markets, particularly concerns over energy security, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, has led to a demand for the sort of long-term contracts that have allowed commitments to be made to build the projects.

Our dependence on foreign oil and natural gas has created a vulnerability affecting our national security and economic stability. Up until this past decade there was an appreciable decline in our oil and natural gas production in the US and we were tied to world market price fluctuations. Oil prices and natural gas prices rose and fell based on OPEC’s and other large oil and natural gas producers’ production and pricing decisions. Beginning in 2005, things began to change in the US oil and natural gas industry. New technology called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” made it possible to extract oil and natural gas from geological

With shale natural gas now on the horizon in the United States of America, many supporters of the horizontal hydraulic fracturing industry are looking at the economic benefits of fracking shale. The current horizontal drilling abilities provided “23.608 quadrillion Btu [of just shale natural gas alone] in 2011” (Hassett and Mathur 2014). This number in terms of energy production marked the “USA [as] the second largest natural gas producer” (Hassett and Mathur 2014) as of the year 2011. Since 2011, the production of natural gas in the United States has been raised even higher as more and more states lift their moratoriums on fracking and new natural gas hotspots are discovered.

The debate over fracking cannot simply be limited to the discussion of environmental impact and health concerns. While these subjects are critically important to our future, so is the economic stability of the United States and its energy security that has been a point of major concern for decades. Until recent years, the hydrocarbon industry has been lead by Middle Eastern OPEC nations, and by natural gas production in places like Russia. For the last three consecutive years, the United States has

Since 2004 the UK has been a net importer of natural gas, as the North Sea reserves have been exploited and nearly exhausted. Today, ten years later, the UK has become even more dependent on foreign gas with over 50% of demand for gas satisfied by foreign supply (Gloystein, 2013). This increasing dependence on foreign countries is a worrying trend, due to the adverse effects it can have, which include being subjected to price shocks, supply shortages and manipulation both economically and politically. Energy insecurity has arisen through a lack of investment in other

Klare argues that discovery of a natural resource, for instance, oil, result in producers seeking and exploiting the most desirable, best quality and those closest to markets. Over time, these “easy” resources become scarce, of poorer quality, harder to extract and extend into areas further away from the market. This subsequent need to extract “tougher” resources has catalyzed an age of discovery that energy experts call the “shale revolution.” Daniel Yergin, an author and energy optimist describes the “natural gas

In this text, I concern myself with the contents of two articles based on recent microeconomics issues. During the last two months, the price of gas in the U.S. has been on an upward trend. Taking into consideration recent happenings on the international scene, this trend could have been triggered by many different factors. The articles I make use of in this case discuss the rising oil and gas prices.

Recent spike in US and Canada shale gas production have reduced the prices in the region to historical minimum of less than $4/MMBtu, a half of the price for Europe and five times less the price for China or Japan. This difference in prices has raised huge interest to export of LNG from USA to Asian market. Out of country’s total 11 LNG

World oil demand is increasing as emerging economies need more energy to increase their living standards. Estimates, shown below, are that by 2030, China and India as emerging markets will import over 70% to 90% of their fossil fuel needs (1) . Coupled to a continued high and growing demand for oil, makes this a robust market for the next 30 years.

For several years now the European Union, the largest regional trading block in the world, has been trying to liberalize its energy market, replacing the markets of its 27 member states with a single continent wide market for electricity and gas. The first phase of liberalization went into effect in June 2007. When fully implemented, the ability of energy producers to sell