Editing Natural gas (section)

==History==
[[File:Residential natural gas bill USA 1834.jpg|thumb|A gas bill from [[Baltimore]], Maryland, 1834, for manufactured coal gas, before the introduction of ground-extracted methane gas.]]

Natural gas can come out of the ground and cause a long-burning fire. In [[ancient Greece]], the gas flames at [[Mount Chimaera]] contributed to the legend of the fire-breathing creature [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]]. In [[ancient China]], gas resulting from the drilling for [[Brine (solution)|brines]] was first used by about 400 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Eric Hadley-Ives |last2=Chun-Chih Hadley-Ives |title=First Oil Wells |url=http://www.historylines.net/history/chinese/oil_well.html |website=History Lines}}</ref> The Chinese transported gas seeping from the ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to boil salt water to [[Salt in Chinese history|extract the salt]] in the [[Ziliujing District]] of [[Sichuan]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=http://naturalgas.org/overview/history/ |access-date=2016-12-01 |publisher=NaturalGas.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Malcolm |title=The Economics of the Gas Supply Industry |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-99879-7 |page=185}}</ref>

Natural gas was not widely used before the development of long distance pipelines in the early 20th century. Before that, most use was near to the source of the well, and the predominant gas for fuel and lighting during the industrial revolution was manufactured coal gas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Britannica Academic |url=https://academic.eb.com/?target=%2Flevels%2Fcollegiate%2Farticle%2Fnatural-gas%2F110439 |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=academic.eb.com}}</ref>

The history of natural gas in the United States begins with localized use. In the seventeenth century, French missionaries witnessed the American Indians setting fire to natural gas seeps around [[Lake Erie]], and scattered observations of these seeps were made by European-descended settlers throughout the eastern seaboard through the 1700s.<ref name="encyclopedia.com">{{Cite web |title=Natural Gas Industry {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/natural-gas-industry |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> In 1821, William Hart dug the first commercial natural gas well in the United States at [[Fredonia, New York]], United States, which led in 1858 to the formation of the [[Fredonia Gas Light Company]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Natural Gas - APGA |url=https://www.apga.org/apgamainsite/aboutus/facts/history-of-natural-gas |access-date=2019-02-18 |website=www.apga.org}}</ref> Further such ventures followed near wells in other states, until technological innovations allowed the growth of major long distance pipelines from the 1920s onwards.<ref name="encyclopedia.com" />

By 2009, {{convert|66,000|km3|mi3|abbr=on}} (or 8%) had been used out of the total {{convert|850,000|km3|mi3|abbr=on}} of estimated remaining recoverable reserves of natural gas.<ref name="worldenergyoutlook.org">{{Cite web |date=2009 |title=World Energy Outlook 2009 |url=http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2009/WEO2009.pdf |website=International Energy Agency}}</ref>