The gas industry has grown from local roots to become a global industry. It is fundamentally different from oil, being a much cheaper commodity. It has been through major transitions in ownership from its private pioneering days to municipally owned local networks, then centralized under government ownerships until privatized again. Currently, while the distributors of gas in the West remain largely privately owned, the international suppliers are largely state-owned bodies in Russia and the Middle East and as such part of the trend towards state capitalism.