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In the first of what will be a regular series of short articles looking back at “historic” issues of Gas Matters, we look back at the September 20, 1988 issue. What was preoccupying Gas Matters back in September 1988? The issue was 16 pages long, produced on paper, and had only three articles plus a statistics section. It had a phone, a telefax and a telex number, but no e-mail address and no website. And “All gas matters are dealt with by James Ball”.

As climate change imperatives and the astonishing rise of unconventional gas demolish current assumptions about the future, the world’s gas industry needs to prepare for fundamental change. That was the radical message from October’s World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires.

There are times when attending a major gas conference is a matter of going through the motions. And then there are times when the critical mass that such a gathering creates combines with a moment in time to ensure that everyone goes away changed by what they saw and heard. The World Gas Conference (WGC), held in Buenos Aires may be just such an event.

Two of our longer articles this month feature the natural gas industry's response to global warming: carbon sequestration (page 1) and the use of natural gas to replace more polluting fuels in motor vehicles (page 24), and every month we learn of more are