Matt Simmons has said that a lot of untapped natural gas reserves (which tend to be stranded) around the world, including Russia, are unproven. He has said that many fields have not been properly surveyed so the field reserves are estimates in the widest sense of the word. He thinks that the Russian fields in the north of the country will be about a $50 to $ 60 billion project to bring to the market.

This is my gut feeling on the figures given how inaccurate numbers are bandied about as proven fact. Has Russia got large amounts of natural gas? Yes. Is it is large as reported (1694 Tcf)? Probably not. Will all of that total reported reserves of gas, be drilled and supplied to the markets in the East and West? No. That is not to say that Russia has large amounts of natural gas, but will it be feasible to extract the gas and bring it to market?

I have also noticed (probably along with most TOD readers) that USA has had about 9 to 10 years reserves of natural gas for the past several years and it looks like it will have 9 to 10 years reserves in a few years time as well.