LNG growth hinges on price, say buyers and sellers

The biggest opportunity for LNG growth—coal-to-gas switching in Asia—will materialise only if LNG is realistically priced

The LNG industry remains surprisingly bullish about its future, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, record low spot prices over the past year and—most importantly of all—the growing environmental imperative to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. There is, however, a proviso; LNG will need to be priced at a level where it becomes the fuel of choice to push coal out of the energy mix, especially in Asia. A striking feature of last week’s Gastech Virtual Summit was that this message came not just from buyers and traders but also from producers—an alignment of views that has been rare until now. 70mn t/yr – Novatek’s maximum production capacity by 2030 Leading the charge for the producers was Ma