The financial benefits of natural gas – whether to gas producer countries or to those economies that consume gas – are well-established. Gas is, for example, the main source of domestic heating and electrical power generation in many western countries and is recognized as a cleaner or cheaper fossil fuel for these purposes than traditional sources such as coal or oil. And natural gas has many other uses across sectors such as petrochemicals, agriculture and food production.

But unless the necessary infrastructure is in place to capture, transport, store and process natural gas – either in its natural state, or after being turned into a liquid - it can be undervalued by the organisations that produce it as a bi-product to their petroleum exploration and production activities. In some countries, (even including the USA) ‘associated’ gas is still illegally wasted through flaring rather than being captured and used for economic purposes.

The political, logistical and financial challenges of moving gas from its production location to where it can be commercially consumed are very large. Huge investment in constructing trans-national gas pipelines or in developing expensive LNG liquefaction and re-gasification facilities and building specialist LNG container ships will be needed.

This EuroMaTech training course looks at the practical challenges and their commercial / contractual implications in developing a gas industry – with a particular focus on Liquid Natural Gas production, storage, transportation and use.