Paul, since you asked: what the future holds for natural gas production and consumption depends on what value humanity assigns to protecting the environment as a shared resource, vs. personal gain or convenience.

It's not hyperbole to note the combustion of fossil fuels is destroying our natural world; that already, humans have introduced lasting changes (>100,000 years) to the habitats of every extant species:

"• Tens to hundreds of times: the extent to which the current rate of global species extinction is higher compared to average over the last 10 million years, and the rate is accelerating

• Up to 1 million: species threatened with extinction, many within decades

• >500,000 (+/-9%): share of the world’s estimated 5.9 million terrestrial species with insufficient habitat for long term survival without habitat restoration

• >40%: amphibian species threatened with extinction

• Almost 33%: reef forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and >33% marine mammals threatened with extinction

• 25%: average proportion of species threatened with extinction across terrestrial, freshwater and marine vertebrate, invertebrate and plant groups that have been studied in sufficient detail."

In summary, no one knows what the future holds for extraction (none are being "produced") and consumption of methane, aka "natural gas", of oil, of coal, of any fossil fuel. It's my belief that in 2020, extracting any of it is the height of arrogance, of greed, of irresponsibility. Leave it in the ground - all of it.