Russia's government has announced that it intends to liberalize liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports starting in January 2014, breaking Gazprom's absolute export monopoly. The bulk of the country's natural gas reserves under development and production are in the upper Western Siberia. However, Gazprom is increasingly inventing in new regions, such as the Yamal Peninsula, Eastern Siberia, and Sakhalin Island, to bring gas deposits in these areas into production. Some of the most prolific fields in Siberia include Yamburg, Urengoy, and Medvezh'ye, all of which are licensed to Gazprom. These three fields have seen output declines in recent years. A substantial amount of natural gas is also associated with oil deposits in the country's oil heartland in Western Siberia. In 2012, Russia was the world's second-largest dry natural gas producer (23.8 Tcf), second only to the United States (24.1 Tcf). Russia sends about 76% of its natural gas exports to customers in Western Europe, with Germany, Turkey, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom receiving the bulk of these volumes. Smallervolumes of natural gas are also shipped via the Gazprom pipeline network to Austria, Finland, and Greece. (EIA.GOV).
The United States has vast resources of natural gas available for extraction. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that there are 2,632 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable natural gas resources in the United States in its 2011 Annual Energy Outlook. The National Petroleum Council estimates U.S. recoverable natural gas resources to be 1,451 Tcf in their 2007 report, while the Potential Gas Committee estimates the most likely level to be 1,897 Tcf as of 2010. In order to meet the demand for natural gas, the United States relies on domestic production, imports of dry gas, and imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Most of the natural gas that is consumed in the United States is produced domestically, with the balance of dry natural gas being imported mainly from Canada.
