Global natural gas consumption is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent to 2024, returning to the pre-2017 trend, according to latest report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday.
The report explained that the greater demand is in the U.S and China are the main driver for the rise. According to IEA's Gas 2019 report including analysis and forecast to 2024, natural gas demand grew 4.6%, its fastest annual pace since 2010, with gas accounting for 45% of the total increase in primary energy consumption worldwide.
In addition, by 2024, gas consumption is forecast to exceed 4.3 trillion cubic meters (tcm) – compared with 3.9 tcm in 2018. The repot showed that natural gas consumption is forecast to grow in almost all regions, led by China and gas producing countries.
"China is expected to account for more than 40% of global gas demand growth to 2024, propelled by the government’s goal to improve air quality," the report said and added that The US, the Middle East and North Africa will account for most of the rest of global demand growth, thanks to their access to abundant and competitive domestic resources, which encourages.
Additionally, natural gas demand in Europe will benefit from closures of coal and nuclear plants.
- The global gas trade’s expansion is mainly driven by LNG
The report underlined that the US liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the single largest contributor to trade growth.
"In the absence of confirmed investment plans from Qatar, the United States will become the world’s largest LNG exporter with 113 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2024," the report stated. New US capacity combined with the ramping up of Australian and Russian infrastructure is expected to account for almost 90% of additional exports.
In the meantime, China is set to become the world’s largest LNG importer by 2024 – and the largest pipeline gas importer by 2022.
(Anadolu Agency)
