13 July, 2017
"The U.S. shale revolution shows no sign of running out of steam and its effects are now amplified by a second revolution of rising LNG supplies", said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
Of that amount, Australia would have capacity to export 117.8 bcm a year of LNG, followed by the United States with 106.7 bcm a year and Qatar with 104.9 bcm a year, it said. By 2022, USA production was expected to be 890 bcm, accounting for 22 percent of the total global gas output. Come 2022, the United States will produce more than a fifth of the world's gas, putting it on the same level as top gas exporters such as Russian Federation and Norway, the agency predicted.
"Even in a well-supplied market, recent events remind us that gas security remains a critical issue", Birol said. "The rising number of LNG-consuming countries, from 15 in 2005 to 39 this year, shows that LNG attracts many new customers, especially in the emerging world", Dr Birol said.
Current low LNG prices are already making it tougher for exporters, and competition is loosening the typically rigid contracts that have dominated the long-distance trade.
At the same time, ample LNG availability is creating new competition with pipeline gas supplies, which could benefit consumers. The figure represents more than a fifth of global gas output.
China will account for 40 per cent of growth in demand for natural gas to 2022, the IEA predicts.
Global gas demand was expected to rise by 1.6 percent a year to 4,000 bcm in 2022, slightly higher than last year's forecast of 1.5 percent, the IEA said.
Fracking has already opened up USA shale oil and gas deposits, leading to a fall in gas prices and greenhouse gas emissions as power generation switches from coal to gas, as well as reducing America's historical reliance on fossil fuel imports.
Three major LNG terminals are being built on the Texas coast by Houston-based firms, at a cost of tens of billions of dollars, to export the gas. "The environmental advantages of natural gas, particularly when replacing coal, also deserve more attention from policy-makers".
