Since 1945, the competitive position of natural gas in the fossil-fuel energy market has improved; the position of oil has improved less markedly; and the position of coal has deteriorated substantially. In 15 years the natural gas industry has grown to the nation's fifth largest. The natural gas industry, however, has serious problems. It is composed of varied groups with diverse interests--consumers, representatives of state and federal regulatory agencies, distributors, pipeline transmission companies, and producers. Conditions and problems are so different among groups, and even within groups that are widely separated geographically, that the natural gas industry cannot speak with unity, and its position is thus weakened.

In 1964, natural gas and accompanying liquids (wet gas) supplied 33.5 per cent, crude oil and net imported products 40.3 per cent, coal 22.5 per cent, and water and nuclear power 3.7 per cent of the primary energy consumed in the United States. Although the primary-energy requirements in the United States increased about 60 per cent from 1945 to 1964, use of natural gas (wet) increased more than fourfold. During the same period, use of coal declined by two-thirds.

This large increase in the use of natural gas has led to the erroneous belief that continued growth at this rate can be expected for a decade or more; if this were to be so, by 1975 more than 25 trillion cu ft of natural gas would be required to supply the same percentage of the primary-energy demand. This belief has no justification in fact. Any seeming overabundance of natural gas is an illusion brought about by local conditions of supply and demand. To meet such ephemeral demands, it is not feasible to build facilities for gas that cannot be found and produced. There are many estimates of total supply with the widest range, and that of the writer is one of the more conservative. Estimated future supplies exist "on paper," but are by no means assured. They must be found and develope in the face of increasingly difficult and costly exploration and competition from other fuels, principally coal. If the producers of primary energy cannot work together, the consequences may be detrimental to all.