Gas and Its Role in Navigating an Evolving Energy Landscape

Attending a panel session at Malaysian Gas Symposium 2026, organised by the Malaysian Gas Association, the President of the International Gas Union (IGU) – Mr Andrea Stegher –emphasised to the attendees at this prestigious annual event the complexities of today’s energy system and the fundamental role that Gas plays in meeting the ever-increasing global energy demand.

Joining Mr Stegher on the panel were Mr Sam Chua - Partner, Advisory APAC, at Rystad Energy – and Mr Chris Starling - Chief Strategy Officer at JERA Asia. Aptly entitled“GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES: Navigating an Evolving Global Energy Landscape”, the panellists explored geopolitics, LNG outlook, investment trends and the Gas evolution, highlighting issues related to energy resilience, security, affordability, decarbonisation and the lessons Malaysia and the region can adopt from today’s evolving global energy strategies.

In his interventions, IGU’s President argued that the global energy landscape faces simultaneous pressures from geopolitical disruptions, growing energy demand and more frequent extreme weather events:

“The Strait of Hormuz crisis of 2026 provided the most significant test of the global Gas system since the energy crisis of 2022, but the Gas industry has become more diversified, more flexible and significantly more resilient to disruption. However, the long-term challenge requires providing more amply available and flexible resources to keep pace with a rapidly changing and increasingly demanding global energy system. This is what the Gas industry is constantly working on and where policy making alignment is essential to support ongoing and future actions.

“Energy planning needs to account for the possibility of higher demand outcomes, particularly as data centres expansion, rising cooling requirements and geopolitical uncertainty make future energy consumption increasingly difficult to predict. Amidst this uncertain context, Gas remains essential not only as a source of energy supply, but also as a tool for system resilience, helping markets manage demand volatility, supply disruptions and risks to reliable energy and power supply.”