Natural gas is currently the most promising fossil fuel. Its consumption is growing at a faster rate, replacing coal and petroleum products in countries’ transport and energy balance sheets. The development of technologies for liquefaction and transport in the form of LNG has significantly expanded the sales market, and the possibilities of regasification (transition from a liquid state to a gaseous state) have attracted increased interest not only from producers and suppliers raw materials, but also consumers, which further increased demand.
Over the past 20 years, LNG transport volumes have multiplied by 3.7 (from 140.5 billion cubic meters in 2000 to 516 billion cubic meters in 2021). At the same time, there is a faster development of regasification capacities compared to the rate of construction of LNG plants, despite the significant underloading of regasification terminals in LNG importing countries. In addition, Australia and Qatar remain the main producers and suppliers of LNG in the global market, but the construction of new LNG production facilities in the United States and Russia will lead to increased competition.
In turn, the main LNG buyers are Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, in which China’s share is constantly increasing, reaching 41% (Japan – 11%). It should also be noted that, despite rumors of a boom in regasification projects in Europe, EU countries are lagging far behind China in terms of LNG reception infrastructure development.
Thus, according to the American non-governmental organization Global Energy Monitor, in China in 2022, 24 LNG regasification terminals with a total capacity of 85.3 million tons per year were under construction, while in the EU there are had 9 terminals with a capacity of 23.7 million tons per year. . The EU is even inferior to India, where the construction of 5 terminals with a capacity of 33 million tons per year has been carried out.
LNG regasification projects are also being implemented by Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, where the total capacity of terminals under construction reached 26.5 million tonnes per year in 2022. This is driven by the growing demand for gas from the electric power industry. For example, China’s share of the world in terms of commissioning gas-fired power plants was 26%, while Germany accounted for only 2.7%. Thus, despite the increase in the share of LNG in the structure of EU gas imports (from 22% in Q4 2021 to 40% in Q1 2023), Asia-Pacific countries are leading the growth demand.
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