TotalEnergies: growth in demand for liquefied gas this year will be ensured by China and Europe

By Rhod Mackenzie

TotalEnergies Vice President for Asia, Thomas Morisse, predicts that demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will increase in 2024, driven by China and Europe.

Morisse stated at an energy conference, as reported by Reuters, that "(Demand for) LNG will continue to grow. Europe is a new and large market, so demand will continue to increase. However, in the short term, the supply of (LNG) will not increase." As a result, prices will remain under pressure and markets will remain volatile.

However, the forecast for volatility is less likely than for prices because the European Commission (EC) recently announced plans to closely monitor gas consumption on the continent and make every effort to keep it as low as possible.

Brussels continues to try to stabilize the supply of electricity and gas. This week, the European Commission invited EU members to continue voluntarily reducing total gas demand by 15% below the annual average from March 2017 to March 2022.

However, despite this, Oil Price reports that TotalEnergies has become the latest energy giant to predict a bright future for gas. For instance, British Shell, another oil and gas giant, predicted this month that demand for liquefied gas will increase by 50% by 2040. According to Shell analysts and economists, China and Asia as a whole will provide the surge in demand due to the transition of developing economies from 'dirty' coal to 'cleaner' gas.

The demand for LNG has been growing recently due to falling prices, which is attributed to weak demand in the main markets, Asia and Europe. Gas demand in Asia is particularly sensitive to LPG prices because Asian countries are poorer than European buyers. The past two years have demonstrated that a single significant price surge is enough to cause Asian economies to lose interest in LNG for financial reasons.