As many countries become wary of nuclear power following Japan's atomic disaster, they are looking to natural gas as the best alternative for generating electricity.
Gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and Japan is already the world's largest importer of it in super-cooled form, as liquefied natural gas. LNG was chosen by Japan to provide gas for home use, industry and power years before last month's earthquake and tsunami turned the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into a dangerous source of radioactivity and forced it close.
However, since Japan took the decision to make LNG an important part of its energy policy, a revolution in gas production has rapidly gathered momentum. It has greatly increased global gas supplies and driven down the price, even as oil prices have soared.