Natural Gas

Natural gas, the first-cousin to crude oil, is a combustible, gaseous fossil fuel often found in underground reservoirs and comprised of methane and other hydrocarbon compounds. It rarely attracts as much interest or headlines as petroleum, but in the last year or so, many have predicted that a new natural gas era may be dawning.
Natural gas is primarily a source for electrical generation that has become increasingly popular because it burns cleaner than oil and coal and produces less greenhouse gases. Many environmentalists and energy analysts view natural gas as a natural bridge fuel between the dominant fossil fuels of today and the renewable fuels of tomorrow. Once merely a regionally based fuel, frequently flared off in oil fields because it was of little use, natural gas is now fast becoming a major international commodity.
Once "stranded" gas is now being piped and shipped around the world. When recent droughts hit Spain, natural gas came to the rescue as a backup source of electricity. When a nuclear plant was closed in Japan, the Japanese also turned to natural gas. Meanwhile natural gas has become a geopolitical weapon for Russia, which flexes its muscles by turning on and then off a pipeline to Ukraine and Western Europe.