The is the fourth article in a series on BP’s recently-released Statistical Review of World Energy 2021 . Previous articles provided an overview of this year’s Review, an examination of the data on carbon emissions, and a look at oil supply and demand trends. Today I delve into the data on natural gas production and consumption. The U.S. had dominated global natural gas production until the 1980s, at which time it ceded the lead to Russia. The Middle East has also grown its natural gas production at a rapid pace over the past 50 years, and was on pace to take the global lead. Natural gas production had been in decline in the U.S. until the fracking boom that began to boost production in 2005. Production grew in the U.S. by an astounding 86% from 2005 to 2020, which pushed the U.S. back into the global lead among natural […]