During the recent past natural gas has presented itself as a greener fuel of choice, more evidently than ever. With rising environmental issues, natural gas seems to be the most practical alternative. At the CWC World LNG summit 2013 held this in year in Paris, various opportunities and key challenges were discussed regarding the present state and the future possibilities related to the industry. Below is the summarized insight of the summit.
The present scenario:
Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) remains high in Asia with almost 75% of the total sales in the continent. The supply projects have also expanded particularly in the North America, contributing 330 Mtpa taking the total volume produced upto 600 Mtpa.
The challenge however before the industry is the regional price differentiation which because of the pressure in the international market is wider than that of the oil prices.
Future projection:
The industry is expected to grow around 5-6% pa, which amounts up to 400-430 Mtpa by 2025.
ASIA
Asia would remain the pivotal market for natural gas and is expected to consume 75% of the total production. With demand from mature markets such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; a new segment of market consisting of India, China and Middle East would emerge to be an important market segment in the global scenario.
EUROPE
Decreased demand and price competition in Europe owes to a lower demand for LNG in Europe thereby, raising the import dependency to 80% by 2035. Europe will play a key role as the global balancing market for LNG in the future
THE AMERICAS
Collectively the LNG demand of the Americas is set to rise by 2020 whereby they will require creative LNG sourcing to meet demand compete with other markets.
USA
Work is in progress to make USA a material exporter of LNG by 2025 thereby; increasing opportunities for new LNG supply capacities.
RUSSIA
In an attempt to liberalize LNG exports, Russia is investing in various projects and shall foresee an increased LNG sales in Asia by 2020.
MOZAMBIQUE
The picture for Mozambique LNG looks promising and it is becoming a key player in the LNG industry
According to the figure above LNG is evidently growing fast in the gas segment.
Keep LNG Going
LNG development for the future needs more commercial innovation in terms of better pricing mechanism exploring more avenues of partnership in the value chain. A key issue identified was the struggle faced by smaller LNG projects to guarantee completion and assure their lenders, meanwhile scope for innovation while developing LNG projects or using LNG equipment is set to rise.
LNG to flourish with diversity:
Diverse customers and portfolios along with diverse pricing mechanism will boost LNG in the times to come and initiatives by countries to become global players in the LNG market will support the effort and resolve the impasses between buyers and sellers.
Below is the detailed summary report on the CWC WLNG summit 2013
