The International Energy Agency in 2011 asked the question whether the world was entering a ‘golden age of gas’. It continues to flag up gas as the key “transition fuel” between a coal and oil-fuelled present and a low-carbon future, notably ahead of last December’s climate conference in Paris (MEES, 13 November 2015).

IEA chief Fatih Birol repeated the call to gas at last week’s launch of the IEA’s latest Medium Term Gas Market report. But, as the report makes clear, the reality is that gas risks getting squeezed amid “greater competition in the power sector” from “very cheap coal prices” and subsidized renewables. (CONTINUED - 1473 WORDS)