Natural gas has been hailed as the bridge between fossil fuels and renewables. Global gas demand has been growing at an average annual 2.3 percent over the last ten years, although it slowed in 2016 to 1.5 percent. The market is oversupplied, which has pressured prices so much as to make the bridge fuel even more attractive especially for emerging economies such as Mexico. Mexico has been slow to develop its gas reserves, however. Until recently, all its natural gas output came in the form of associated gas – the gas that gets extracted as a by-product of oil production. What’s more, the country only recently started to deregulate its energy industry and the regulatory framework for shale gas extraction is wanting in many respects, as Forbes’ Jude Clemente notes . In addition, there are problems with infrastructure, production costs, and shale hydrocarbon extraction know-how. Why shale? Because the […]