Bu yazıda, son zamanlarda dünya enerji dengesinde önemli bir yer tutmaya başlayan tabiî gazın enerji kaynağı olarak kazandığı önem gözden geçirilmiş ve dünya enerji ekonomisinde oynadığı rol belirtilmiştir. Ayrıca, Türkiye ile Irak arasında gerçekleştirilecek olan tabiî gaz projesi hakkında da geniş bilgi verilmiştir.

Continued growth of demand and changes in sources of energy supply are effecting a major transformation in the worldwide natural gas industry. At the same time, improvements in transportation techniques and concern over the availability and quality of other energy forms are opening new vistas for natural gas. Natural gas is found with petroleum, though some oil fields have very little gas and some gas fields yield no commercial oil. Chemically, natural gas is a mixture of the lighter chemicals found in petroleum, mainly methane with butane, propane and other gases. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and even helium may be present also. Natural gas is expected to meet about one-fifth of the non-socialist world's energy demand by 1985. Natural gas consumption in 1985, according to United Nations estimates, would run at the annual rate of 1,500 million metric tons coal equivalent in the socialist world as against the 1962 consumption of 600 million and 120 million metric tons coal equivalent respectively. The world's reserves of natural gas are extremely large; the experts estimates vary, but there are certainly more than 80 million millions of cubic meters. This is equivalent to the calorific value of 100 thousand million tons of hard coal. The cumulative consumption from 1963 to 1985 wouldj according to U.N.’s estimates, total something like 30,000 million metric tons of coal equivalent which is about the same as the present proved reserves of 28,800 million metric tons coal equivalent. This, however, does not mean that there would be no more gas after 1985. Extensive exploration efforts combined with better know-how and improved gas technology would help discover more gas reserves during up to 1985. Getting natural gas out of the ground does not cost very much, but transporting it for long distances is only possible with the help of expensive equipment. It is estimated that transportation and distribution account for 75 per cent of the consumer price of natural gas.