IEA predicts China gas Golden Age

2014-06-13

The 'golden Age' of natural gas, driven by booming demand, will expand to China from North America over the next five years, the International Energy Agency said in its 2014 Medium-Term Gas Market Report released today.

Chinese gas demand, expected to be doubled through 2019, may compensate for a slight slowdown in growth in many other areas of the world, the report said. Air quality concerns in China are prompting the government to adopt tougher plans to reduce pollution, while gas is emerging as a major part of the solution.

The power, industrial, and transport sectors will drive overall Chinese gas demand, which will reach 315Bn cubic meters in 2019, an increase of 90% over the forecast period, the report said. IEA pointed out that half of China's new gas demand will be met by domestic resources, most of them unconventional, and Chinese production is set to grow by 65% from 117Bn cubic metres in 2013 to 193Bn cubic metres in 2019. The report forecasts global demand to rise by 2.2% year-on-year by the end of the forecast period (2019), compared with the 2.4% growth projected in last year's outlook.

"While demand growth is driven by the Asia-Pacific region - and especially China - supply growth for the international gas trade is dominated by private investments in LNG in Australia and North America," said IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven. Australia, Canada, and the United States are taking the lead in the expansion of the LNG trade, which is expected to grow by 40% to reach 450Bn cubic meters by 2019. Half of all new LNG exports will originate from Australia, while North America will account for about 8% of the global LNG trade by 2019.

Source from : IHS Maritime 360

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