Gas demand forecasts decreasing

The International Energy Agency has recently published its Medium-Term Gas Market Report for 2014. It describes how the high demand for natural gas established in North America will spread to China over the next five years.

It is estimated that demand in China will double in the period up to 2019. This should compensate for the slight decrease in growth in other energy sectors across the world.

The key finding of the report is that global demand for natural gases will rise by 2.2% by the end of the forecast period. Most of the demand will be met by liquefied natural gas. Private sector suppliers in Australia, the US and Canada will lead the development.

IEA Executive Director, Maria van der Hoeven, said:

"We are entering the age of much more efficient natural gas markets, with additional benefits for energy security. 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."

"High LNG prices are threatening to crimp demand as many countries are increasingly unwilling, or unable, to afford these supplies – and that could open the door to coal," she continued. "Looking ahead, unless we see timely investment in new production and LNG facilities and the reversal of the recent cost inflation of LNG, only a very strong climate policy commitment could redirect Asia’s coal investment wave to gas."