Liquefied natural gas Tour had shown there was a temperature above which a gas could not be liquefied. There was a major push in the mid to late nineteenth century to liquefy all gases. A number of scientists including Michael Faraday, James Joule, and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), did experiments in this area. In 1886 Karol Olszewski liquefied methane, the primary constituent of natural gas. By 1900 all gases had been liquefied except helium which was liquefied in 1908. The first large scale liquefaction of natural gas in the U.S. was in 1918 when the U.S. government liquefied natural gas as a way
Natural gas to flow in economical quantities, shale gas wells depend on fractures to allow the gas to flow. Early shale gas wells depended on natural fractures through which gas flowed; almost all shale gas wells today require fractures artificially created by hydraulic fracturing. Since 2000, shale gas has become a major source of natural gas in the United States and Canada. Because of increased shale gas production, the United States is now the number one natural gas producer in the world. Following the success in the United States, shale gas exploration is beginning in countries such as Poland, China, and South