ESRF Conference presentation

This paper presents two ways to think about the connection between natural gas and human development. The paper first reviews current gas production and the opportunities for increased domestic gas consumption from shallow-water or onshore gas production, before focusing on the potential from larger-scale, higher cost, deep-water gas. I then use a framework that treats sub-surface gas as an asset, which is then put through a sequence of transformations to turn it into human capital, and other assets that sustain higher living standards, as the first way to think about linking natural gas to human development. The second way to think about making more of gas simply tracks the linkages to jobs and economic growth associated with this process of asset transformation. Thinking in terms of an asset transformation provides a focus on the public finances; viewing the linkages to the process of asset transformation with an eye on the implications for jobs provides a focus on the business environment for associated private investment and job creation.