In search of LNG demand and how to pay for it

Demand is striving to catch up with supply but the short-term future looks challenging

It is hard to remember an LNG outlook for a year with this much downside price risk. Echoes of the year to come reverberate back to early 2011, when a two-year supply surge tied to major Qatari LNG startups was about to crush the newly minted Platts JKM spot price in Asia. Then the Fukushima nuclear disaster happened and—with the Japan suddenly nuclear-free and hungry for as much gas as it could physically import—what was looking like the beginning of a sustained supply surplus was wiped out overnight. Now, unprecedented four-year growth in new LNG supply will finally be coming to an end by the middle of 2020, but, before it does, it risks pushing down spot prices to some historically low le