Is the liquid gas market set to explode or fizzle?

North America's oil and natural gas boom is expected to continue well into 2015, and for years beyond that.

It's gotten to the point where so much natural gas is being produced that oil and gas companies drilling in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale field have been forced to burn off billions of cubic feet of natural gas over the past several years, due to a lack of pipelines to transport it to markets.

Natural gas usage, and especially liquefied natural gas (LNG), has grown internationally as a cleaner and cost-effective alternative to coal and oil.

A report by the professional services firm EY -- formerly known as Ernst & Young -- says overall global demand for natural gas has grown by around 2.7 percent since 2000, but global demand for LNG has risen by an estimated 7.6 percent during that same period -- and by 2030, it could be nearly double the 2012 level of around 250 metric tons.

Some industry observers say the U.S. could soon become a major exporter of LNG. But there are also concerns the LNG market is starting to flat-line in terms of production, and at least one energy sector analyst expects the global gas market to contract by decade's end.

In a new report, Leonardo Maugeri, a former oil industry executive who's now an associate with the Geopolitics of Energy project at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, noted the largest-ever increase in LNG global exports will probably take place in the next few years.

However, he added that while the shale oil boom will supply relatively inexpensive gas to future U.S. LNG export plans, growth in LNG export capacity "will probably fall short" of the projected 200 million tons per year, with many planned projects eventually being killed off by cost overruns, poor planning, changing markets and other financial conditions.

"Regardless how optimistic or pessimistic one may be about the continuation of the shale gas revolution," Maugeri concluded, "the possibility remains that U.S. shale gas production will not be able to feed growing exports of natural gas, either for environmental reasons (for example, a ban on extending fracking to several areas of the United States), or for having reached the natural limits of shale exploitation at reasonable costs."