BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.6
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
In 2022 global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade growth is expected to slow to 2 percent as the Asian demand boom cools, European import declines continue and the drought-driven spike in South America reverses, Trend reports with reference to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Asia accounts for all net growth in imports, while North America is responsible for all incremental exports – with additional increases in Europe and South America largely offset by declines in the rest of the world.
“In 2021 global LNG trade is projected to expand by 5%, an upward revision of our previous forecast due to a series of extreme weather events earlier this year. All net import growth comes from the Asia Pacific region, while declines in Europe are partially counterbalanced by a spike in South America. Export growth is dominated by North America, while small increases in Africa and Asia Pacific are offset by declines in Europe and South America,” reads the IEA report.
The IEA data shows that in the first eight months of 2021 global LNG trade increased by 6 percent y-o-y, a sharp acceleration from the 2020 growth rate of 1 percent, but lower than the average rate of 10 percent in the 2015-2019 period.
“LNG export growth in the first eight months of 2021 was led by the United States, which recovered from a period of widespread cargo cancellations a year earlier and posted 65 percent y-o-y growth. Egypt, where the Damietta plant restarted operations in February 2021, registered a nine-fold y-o-y increase in LNG outflows, making it the second-biggest contributor to global LNG export growth in the January to August period. The biggest export declines occurred in Trinidad and Tobago and Norway due to feed gas shortages and an extended outage following a fire in September 2020, respectively,” reads the report.
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