Introduction: Natural gas development begins at home

International trade in natural gas by pipeline and as LNG was the fastest growing element in the world gas business during the last two decades. However, less than 15% of world gas output crosses frontiers, a proportion closer to that of coal (10%) than of oil (50%). Gas, like coal, should be considered a “market locating” fuel, since its transport cost often far exceeds that of other manufacturing inputs. Moreover, gas export projects suffer from heavy front-end investment costs and from uncertain demand growth in the importing countries. For these reasons, developing countries with a potential for natural gas production must seriously consider all opportunities for local gas utilization. In order to maximize the availability of gas for domestic uses, policies which provide adequate incentives for gas development are required. Imaginative formulae to encourage exploration specifically for gas, and imaginative technology to make local gas development commercial on a smaller scale than most developers have considered so far, are the current prerequisites for natural gas in developing countries.