BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 24. Following the supply shocks of 2022 and 2023, global natural gas markets moved toward gradual rebalancing in 2024, returning to structural growth, Trend reports.
According to preliminary data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), global gas demand rose by 2.7% (115 billion cubic meters or approximately 4 exajoules), reaching an all-time high. This growth outpaced the annual average of around 2% recorded between 2010 and 2019 and was significantly higher than the 1% growth rate observed between 2019 and 2023 amid the Covid pandemic and global energy crisis.
Emerging markets and developing economies accounted for more than three-quarters of the demand increase, with fast-growing Asian economies alone responsible for about 40% of additional consumption in 2024.
From a sectoral perspective, industrial and electricity generation sectors drove approximately 75% of the global gas demand growth. This was fueled by continued economic expansion in Asia and a partial recovery in Europe’s industrial gas demand, although European consumption remained below pre-crisis levels.
Gas demand for electricity generation grew by nearly 2.8% year-on-year, with strong increases in North America, Asia, and Eurasia offsetting a decline in European gas-fired power generation. Extreme weather conditions, including heatwaves in China, India, and the United States, played a significant role in higher gas consumption, accounting for about one-fifth of the total increase in demand.
Meanwhile, natural gas consumption in the residential and commercial building sectors grew at a more modest rate of around 1% in 2024.
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