How Natural Gas is Supplied
  1. Pipelines
By virtue of its gaseous state, natural gas is usually supplied through pipelines, especially in terms of intra-state trading. The European Union depends on pipelines to transport more than two-thirds of its imports of natural gas from Russia and Norway. The fixed nature of pipelines and the long-term commitments in the contracts that involves supplying natural gas through it deems it highly risky for importing countries, at least in their perception. Three quarters of natural gas exports to Europe from Russia through Ukraine as a transit country. The precarious political relationship between Russia and the transit countries, Ukraine and Belarus, has made the energy supply of natural gas partially uncertain because of major disruption between 2004 and 2010.
  1. Liquefied Natural Gas
The second method to transport gas from gas-producing areas to gas-consuming areas is in a container or a tanker in liquefied form. Liquefied Natural Gas is produced by cooling natural gas to -161 C at which it becomes liquid. It has the unique advantage of having a reduced volume of about 630 times more than natural gas. Its liquid state makes its treatment is shipping, more or less, like oil. Recent has witnessed an increasing investment in the infrastructure of Liquefied Natural Gas, in terms of onshore, offshore and floating liquefaction and re-gasification terminals and vessels. This was reflected in the volume of trade which multiplied several times.