Dynamics of natural gas production and consumption worldwide

In recent years, the intensification of environmental problems, coupled with the rise in fuel prices in unstable oil markets, has created the necessity to implement energy and capital-efficient processes and to introduce alternative raw materials in the production of environmentally friendly products.Among currently extracted energy resources, natural gas is considered one of the most environmentally safe fuels.It is well known that the majority of natural gas reserves are consumed as a heat source and in electric power generation.However, only 2-3% of natural gas is used as a feedstock in the chemical industry and fuel production.A significant portion is flared, which in turn exacerbates environmental issues.For this reason, the dynamics of natural gas production and the processing technologies aimed at producing new environmentally safe products have become subjects of increasing research interest.The development of gas processing technologies is grounded in the rapid advancement of global science, engineering and processing technology.The presented review attempts to analyze the dynamics of natural gas production and consumption in various countries based on global experience.At the same time, considering the growing global demand for synthetic liquid fuels, the study highlights production technologies based on non-petroleum feedstocks such as natural gas -particularly the application of GTL (Gas-to-Liquid) technologies grounded in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.The development trends of large-scale GTL projects worldwide are also presented and examined