For big oil, future profits lie in big gas business

As competition for scarce petroleum resources intensifies and as oil-rich nations limit access to reserves, the multinational integrated majors are beginning to evolve from Big Oil into Big Gas.

New techniques in natural gas liquefaction – necessary to transport seaborne cargoes – and control over distribution in developed world markets still give these companies an edge over Asian competitors and budding national oil champions. In the short term, Western companies can also extract handsome profits from U.S. gas operations, taxed at relatively low rates compared to production in places like Venezuela and Russia, where nationalist governments are getting a bigger share of the revenue pie.

marketwatch