Globally, natural gas production soared 44 percent in the two decades from 1990 to 2010 while gas reserves jumped more, by 67 percent, due in large measure to major prospecting finds in North America. The price in the United States fell, as a result, from its peak of $13.58 per thousand cubic feet in 2008 to an average of $4.38 last year. Many expect natural gas to gobble up major parts of the oil market. Even in Iran, the government is pushing strongly for cars to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than gasoline. Iran now has 1,618 CNG stations with plans to expand to 2,188 this Persian year. The government says Iran will soon have the largest number of CNG stations of any country.
