The black box of natural gas market: Past, present, and future

The increasing importance of natural gas in ensuring energy security, coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war, motivates us to highlight the scholarly evolution of the literature on natural gas. From an initial pool of 53,964 papers, we refine our database, analyzing 1006 papers. By combining bibliometric and content analysis, we identify leading journals, countries, institutions, authors, articles, and critical research areas in natural gas. Our findings reveal five main research streams: 1) energy security consumption patterns in the natural gas market; 2) volatility and price discovery of the natural gas market; 3) interconnectedness between natural gas and oil market; 4) supply chain management of natural gas; and 5) development and perception of the natural gas market. We propose research questions to establish directions for future research.