Unconventional gas is confirmed to be the energy resource of the future. Together with new deep water discoveries, they shape a view of energy consolidation that is one of the basic vectors of the planet’s energy offer for the twenty-first century.

The LNG market maintains a clear uprising tendency, with a growth of more than 20%. The world capacity of liquefaction in 2011 has reached 379.8 bcm, 4.3% more than in 2010. In this field, the changed role of some LNG terminals in the US market must be pointed out, as they are in the process of converting into mixed terminals (liquefaction and regasification) thanks to the great expansion of unconventional natural gas production.

Moreover, the low price of carbon throughout the year has been benefitting the use of coal for electric generation in Europe. The spot prices of the emission rights of CO₂ (EUAs spot) were valued at 14.38 €/Mt at the first week of January 2011, 16.43 €/Mt at the beginning of June, and 10.14 €/Mt at the end of October.