In the better late than never category, one of the big guns of conventional economic wisdom, the FT's Martin Wolf discovers the Golden Age of Gas that the IEA published last June:

The world is in the midst of a natural gas revolution. Even the sober International Energy Agency refers to a scenario it calls a “golden age of gas”. If such optimism proves right, the implications would not only be far greater than those of the eurozone’s painful dissolution, but would also be economically positive. Never forget that ours is a civilisation built on cheap supplies of commercial energy. The economic rise of emerging countries is bound to make the demand for commercial energy increase dramatically in the decades ahead. Gas matters.

None FT subscribers can find it in the clear via the Irish Times.

Alan Riley and I have shared enough stages at various places around Europe, including Kiev next week, that we generally agree on shale but writing in the WSJ,  he has a slightly more pessimistic take than me:

The prospects for shale gas production in the European Union appear to be weakening. Bulgaria has become the second EU state after France to ban hydraulic fracturing to extract it from the ground. The environmental movement across Europe is building its campaign against the technology, spreading alarm wherever energy companies express interest in developing a shale play.

Is this because I trust that people will be open to facts over emotion, or is that as a lawyer he has a less generous, if probably more realistic, view of human nature?

But one thing we agree on:

Couple of stories not to be missed from Texas.  First, off the father of modern shale George Mitchell may be 93 in a few months, but he's still pushing shale:

Natural gas is a wondrous fuel. It emits less carbon dioxide, less mercury, less nitrogen oxide, less sulfur oxide than any other hydrocarbon energy source. Natural gas is the perfect bridge fuel on the way to a less carbon-dependent economy. There is no question that accidents have occurred and mistakes have been made during the rush to develop this vast new resource, but this remarkable resource can be developed by industry following region-specific best practices and regulators carefully monitoring industry activities.

Something immediately clear about energy traders is that they are overwhelmingly young.Trading is a business where if don't make enough money to retire after a few years,you probably got fired long before.

 A story comes to mind as we see traders ramping up near term oil and LNG curves based on a risk premium stemming from perceptions that if the Straits of Hormuz are bottled up,so too will be the gas production of the largest LNG gas exporter Qatar.  

I remember being on a plane from New York to London in early 1991 when we were woken half way over the Atlantic for the pilot to make an emotional announcement that the war to liberate Kuwait had started.That happened because this was a Kuwait Airways flight. Because of course, not all KA flights had been on the ground at home, leading to an airline in exile that kept on flying.That also made KA flights insanely cheap which explained my presence.

Similarly,today only a half dozen or less LNG tankers would be bottled up in the Gulf.