Resumen del autor, extraído del trabajo. At present, natural gas holds a special position in the world structure of energy production: it belongs to a group of the most broadly employed energy carriers (along with oil and solid fuel, leaving both nuclear power production and renewable energy sources far behind), and is, at the same time, one of the most environmentally clean energy resources. It features the greatest energy, economic and environmental efficiency. The environment has a limited ability to withstand the polluting effect of human activities, and it sets serious restraints on the use of fossil fuels. Because of the ever growing environmental problems, early next century it can be expected that the role of natural gas as a highly efficient and environmentally clean energy carrier will continue to rise, and there is no doubt that the tendency will carry further on into the future. That is considerably supported by the responsibilities of the member countries of the UN Framework Convention on climatic changes set by the 1997 Kyoto act, according to which the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases shall be reduced.