Natural gas, the first cousin to crude oil, is a combustible fossil fuel often found in underground reservoirs and comprised of methane and other hydrocarbon compounds.
A century ago, natural gas was considered a waste product in oil fields and flared or vented off. But after a giant gas field was found in the Panhandle in 1918, it was used to manufacture carbon black, which is used to make car tires. Eventually, Americans began using gas to heat their homes and, later, to fire power plants. But it never became as important a fuel as coal, oil or even nuclear power.
A combination of circumstances have drawn new attention to natural gas.
The crisis at a nuclear plant that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011 raised questions about the safety of nuclear energy. New exploration has yet to resume in the Gulf of Mexico after the blowout of a BP oil well in 2010. And coal plants have been under a shadow because of their contribution to global warming.
Meanwhile, natural gas has overcome two of its biggest hurdles — volatile prices and questionable supplies. In large part because of new discoveries in the United States and abroad that have significantly increased known reserves, natural gas prices have been relatively low in the last two years.
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