Blog Post
Shell LNG Outlook 2020
John Plesnicar • February 20, 2020
2040 LNG demand expected to double to 700 million tonnes
Today Shell released their LNG Outlook 2020. The Shell LNG Outlook, now in its fourth year, highlights key trends from 2019.
Some key takeaways from the Shell LNG Outlook 2020
- Global demand for liquefied natural gas grew by 12.5% to 359 million tonnes in 2019.
- By 2040 LNG demand expected to double to 700 million tonnes.
- An industry record of 40 million tonnes of additional supply became available in 2019. 37% of the supply from the United States.
- The belief in long-term demand growth triggering record investment decisions in liquefaction capacity of 71 million tonnes.
- Growing nuclear availability and mild winters in Japan and South Korea dented LNG imports. 7% drop in Japan and a 8% drop in South Korea.
- In China, LNG imports increased by 14% in 2019 as efforts continued to improve urban air quality.
- Bangladesh, India and Pakistan imported 36 million tonnes, an increase of 19% over last year, pointing to emerging growth countries in Asia.
- Europe absorbed the majority of 2019 supply growth as competitively priced LNG furthered coal to-gas switching in the power sector and replaced declining domestic gas production and pipeline gas imports.
“While we see weak market conditions today due to record new supply coming in, two successive mild winters and the Coronavirus situation, we expect equilibrium to return, driven by a combination of continued demand growth and reduction in new supply coming on-stream until the mid-2020s.” said Maarten Wetselaar, Integrated Gas and New Energies Director at Shell.
The complete Shell LNG Outlook 2020 can be found here PDF (4MB).
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