A FEW WORDS ABOUT NATURAL GAS

CH4. Only one carbon in the molecule, as opposed to the multiple carbons in the crude oil molecules. Burning less carbon, gives us more time to get to renewables? Read more:
The lures (and limits) of natural gas
From Boston to St. Petersburg, natural gas is changing the way the world thinks of energy. But as gas goes global, will Russia become the new Saudi Arabia?
Drake Bennett, July 16, 2006 (Boston Globe)

- Worldwide, technological advances-like LNG, which frees gas from the geographical limits of pipelines-have combined with a growing concern about climate change to push many of the world's developed nations in the direction of gas…
- To understand why gas works differently from oil in the context of energy markets, it's important to keep in mind that gas is not really a commodity-not yet, at least. ``With oil, the term economists use is that it's fungible, you can send the same barrel hither and yon," says Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm...
- The gas market, on the other hand, is much more rigid…Though there were companies drilling and selling gas in the United States in the mid-19th century, it was hard to transport very far…

- Today, while the construction of international pipelines and the development of LNG have created something of a global market for gas, it still lacks the flexibility of the oil market…Whereas oil can simply be pumped into a tanker like water from a tap, gas has to be liquefied, which requires that it be cooled to a couple hundred degrees below zero, then stored at that temperature in the tanker, then turned back into a gas (usually by mixing in seawater to warm it up) when it arrives at its destination…a typical gas field along with a liquefaction plant costs $3 billion to $4 billion. Delivering the same amount of energy from an onshore oil facility costs $600 million to $750 million, a fraction of the price…