Natural gas set up to capture the methane and generate electricity. Natural gas is often stored underground inside depleted gas reservoirs from previous gas wells, salt domes, or in tanks as liquefied natural gas. The gas is injected in a time of low demand and extracted when demand picks up. Storage nearby end users helps to meet volatile demands, but such storage may not always be practicable. With 15 countries accounting for 84% of the worldwide extraction, access to natural gas has become an important issue in international politics, and countries vie for control of pipelines. In the first decade of the
Phoenix Natural Gas announced the first stage of the privatisation of Northern Ireland Electricity, the province's monopolistic utility company; A major part of this was the sale of Ballylumford power station in Northern Ireland to British Gas for £132 million. This oil-fired power plant provided more than half of the power needs of the 600,000 customers in Northern Ireland. British Gas simultaneously announced its plans to set up Premier Transco to build and operate the Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline (SNIP), a natural gas pipeline, to convert Ballylumford to natural gas, and to set up a commercial supply company for natural gas (what would become