As I mentioned, we just came off a three-day conference with the International Gas Union, and we had a series of discussions about this. When people talk about 100 years of gas, the estimate is based on approximately 700 TCF, trillion cubic feet, and we produce about six a year in Canada. We consume about three and we export about three, and the export is to the United States.
On a go forward basis, given how shale development has advanced so quickly in the United States, the opportunity of that export market is drying up. There is an enormous alternative opportunity, which is the Asian market, which you've highlighted.
Yesterday I asked some industry colleagues what they thought the window of opportunity was to get to that market, and the rough estimate is five to ten years, because there's natural gas all over the world. It is extraordinary the quantities of it. North America is ahead on the shale gas development track, but that resource exists around the world. Other countries are moving quickly to try to develop it and try to lock down markets, so the sooner we do so, the better the opportunity for us.
Moreover, within the North American context—you highlighted the trade flows—the reality that's emerging is that it's an integrated gas market, and has been for over 20 years. The opportunity is there for eastern markets to more profitably, more affordably, get gas from eastern U.S. supply and for western markets to more sensibly move their product to offshore markets like Asia.