ABSTRACT
Many OPEC countries are now aware that their supplies of hydrocarbons are not inexhaustible. They sense the contradiction of short run developments by long run trends, which means an over-supply of gas (or oil) now, as compared to possible shortages in the medium to long term. But even so studies are going ahead concerning the feasibility of export projects that could represent drastic changes in the world natural gas picture: pipelines from West Africa to Europe; huge gas deliveries in the form of LNG from Iran to Japan and Western Europe; the development of the unassociated gas in the giant North West Dome gasfield in Qatar; and so on.
