How does natural gas affect the economy?

1 Answer
Mar 6, 2016

Its very important to resource economies that depend on the export or local use of natural gas.

Explanation:

Fossil fuel resource rich regions like the Middle East, Russia, Australia, and Canada have a significant amount of their economic output dependent on the sale of oil and gas. This varies from country to country, but many such governments are also highly dependent on resource royalties that they collect on natural gas and oil production in order to provide schools, hospitals and other government services. Companies that produce natural gas and oil are also a major employers in a country and also pay corporate taxes and royalties to their respective government.

For countries that import natural gas, this is of course is a cost to their economy ,but in most cases helps to fuel their economic development. For example, a lot of natural gas in Europe and North America is used to heat peoples homes in the winter (or AC units in the summer) and to fuel electric power plants or things like cement production.