How Much Energy Can Be Produced from Natural Gas?

The production of energy using natural gas is common in many places around the world. Many countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, utilize this approach to producing energy. The amount of energy that is produced from one barrel, or roughly 5.6 cubic feet (0.16 cubic meters) of oil can be produced using 6,000 cubic feet (170 cubic meters) of natural gas.

More facts about natural gas:

• Natural gas accounted for a little less than one-quarter of the world’s total energy consumption as of 2012. Once considered a more or less useless byproduct of oil production, natural gas has steadily increased in usage since the middle of the 20th century.


• Compared with oil or coal, natural gas has less of an effect on the environment. The cleaner burning of the gas means fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using coal or different types of oil products.


• Although the production of natural gas using traditional methods has declined in Europe and the U.S., the use of those same methods has increased in other parts of the world. In the U.S., efforts to increase production of natural gas from shale and other rock formations were ongoing as of 2012.