The growth of primary power consumption in Western Europe during the 1970s will once more be met mainly by increased production of mineral oil and natural gas. The high forecast for the developing use of natural gas is noteworthy, the figure suggested for natural gas consumption in 1980 being 13 Ofo to 14 Ofo of the total power consumption of Western Europe. This per- 3 centage is equivalent to about 250 Mrd. m of natural gas, of which only 3 about 160-200 Mrd. m will be available from domestic deposits on current estimates. On this basis, a gap between supply and demand will occur in the Western European gas producing industry. The available reserves in Western Europe are estimated on present information to be approximately 3 4,000 Mrd. m; they will therefore be out of all proportion to increasing demand already by the 1980s. At this stage, indications of a shortfall in natural gas production are already evident in the U. S. A., and the Americans have al ready taken energetic measures to assure their power supply for the future. They see the increased exploitation of their abundant coal reserves as the possible solution to their problem. Backed by massive U. S. Government aid, research and development in the production of gaseous and liquid fuels from coal have been pressed for- ward since the beginning of the 1960s.