LNG: a fungible tangible
A shift away from big-budget projects to smaller-scale plants will fundamentally change the market
IT RIVALS iron ore as the world's second-biggest traded commodity - after oil - yet the liquefied natural gas trade remains opaque and illiquid. This is about to change, irking the supermajors that have monopolised the long-term point-to-point business for decades. LNG is coming of age as a commodity. Producers, who feared any change in the business model would lead to a drop in prices, have always resisted this. They insisted long-term oil-linked contracts were still needed to offset their huge investments in LNG. Only a year or so ago, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron and BP, along with their national oil company (NOC) partners, controlled more than 95% of all LNG supply. A study by the I
Also in this section
18 February 2026
The global gas industry is no longer on the backfoot, hesitantly justifying the value of its product, but has greater confidence in gas remaining a core part of the global energy mix for decades
18 February 2026
With marketable supply unlikely to grow significantly and limited scope for pipeline imports, Brazil is expected to continue relying on LNG to cover supply shortfalls, Ieda Gomes, senior adviser of Brazilian thinktank FGV Energia,
tells Petroleum Economist
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
