Global liquefied natural-gas trade might contract for the second year in a row in 2013 mainly due to insufficient supply levels, analysts said.
Global liquefied natural-gas trade might contract for the second year in
a row in 2013 mainly due to insufficient supply levels, analysts said.
LNG supply is lagging behind demand due to the lack of new projects for
exporting gas, and falling supply from key exporters such as
Indonesia
, the
Middle
East
and
Africa
.
"Last year was the first year in which global LNG consumption declined
[in] over two decades" and this year "it looks as if history will
repeat itself," analysts at Bernstein Research said in a note Thursday.
They said global LNG volumes declined by 3.8% for the first six months of this
year, and growth in the second half of the year is expected to be moderate.
Last week,
Japan
's
Institute for Energy Economics also estimated global LNG demand in 2013 to drop
to 233 million tons, from 236.31 million tons in 2012.
It attributed the decline to falling European demand, in addition to tighter
gas supply, and said LNG demand will recover in 2014 to around 250 million tons
on Asian consumption.
Bernstein said LNG exports from
Africa
in
the first five months of 2013 fell 14.0% from last year to 14.3 million tons,
while the
Middle East
, which sent 84% of its LNG exports to
Asia
, saw
exports drop by 1.7% to 40.6 million tons in the same period.
The only region with significant supply growth was
Australia
,
where new projects continue to expand global LNG supply.
On the demand side, Asian countries continue to be the largest market for
imported gas, driving absolute global LNG demand growth, and offsetting the
decline in European markets.
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