Category: Report

Introduction to Low Carbon Gas Technologies

Aligned to IGU’s support of the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions to reduce GHG emissions and its commitment to significantly decarbonise the global energy system, this “Introduction to Low Carbon Gas Technologies” provides a brief guide on key low-carbon and renewable gas technologies that are currently available for deployment to ramp up the gas industry’s efforts towards deep decarbonisation.

Natural gas and its evolving technologies support the renewable energy supply by overcoming intermittency and instability. Existing natural gas infrastructure will also enable cost-effective and more rapid deployment of low-carbon and renewable gases – critical for deep decarbonisation of the global economy. Together, they can enable net-zero pathways, energy security and access issues.

Global Gas Report 2024 Edition

The International Gas Union (IGU), Snam and knowledge partner Rystad Energy, are pleased to announce the Global Gas Report 2024 Edition.

Rising Energy Demand in All Regions and Underinvestment in Gas and Clean Energy Jeopardise Global Energy Supply, with 2030 Energy Targets Visibly Out of Reach.

Key Messages:

• Global gas markets stay in fragile equilibrium, with limited supply growth as demand rises steadily, up by 1.5% in 2023, with an expected acceleration to 2.1% by the end of 2024. Asia continues to be the key engine of this growth, while North America and the Middle East are in the lead on the exports.
• Should gas demand continue to grow as in the last 4 years, without additional production development, a 22% global supply shortfall is expected by 2030. If demand continues to strengthen, the shortfall will be more pronounced. This underscores the urgent need to scale up investments.
• Energy demand has continued to rise in developed and developing regions, while coal burning increased more than ever in 2023, remaining the biggest source of global energy emissions – which broke another record. If current energy demand and supply trends persist, 2030 targets outlined in policy driven decarbonisation scenarios will most likely be missed. In fact, despite efforts to enhance efficiency and ongoing industrial decline, Europe has experienced energy demand growth. In North America, energy demand has surpassed 2019 levels and continues to climb, fueled by the transport sector and AI data centers. Asia’s demand is also surging, particularly in the industrial sectors of India and China. Meanwhile, Africa’s energy demand is growing faster than in most regions, driven by urban development, though it still falls short of the levels required for full energy access, as equitable electricity access remains a significant challenge in Africa and parts of South America.
• To contain the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and to make global gas market equilibrium resilient it is critical to both enhance investment in natural gas supply and scale up biomethane, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and low-carbon hydrogen technologies. Natural gas today provides an immediate opportunity to cut emissions from coal by 50% and from oil by 30% through cost-effective switching. Biomethane is a direct substitution for natural gas. Today, its scale is significantly below potential at roughly 1% of the natural gas market, and it is primarily produced in North America and Europe. However, new centres of production are emerging in hubs like China and India. CO₂ capture capacity, a crucial technology for a successful energy transition, is also gaining momentum, but its scale is still far below what is needed, same as for biomethane and low-carbon hydrogen. These technologies will play a critical role in decarbonising energy supply (especially in hard-to-abate sectors) and ensuring its resilience. Scaling them is essential, calling for urgent investment and enabling policies to start building the growing volumes of project proposals.

2024 World LNG Report

• This is the 15th annual edition of the World LNG Report, the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
• The global LNG market now connects 20 exporting with 51 importing markets, while supply is currently the primary limiting factor on growth.
• After two years of severe turbulence, the LNG market has a newfound but fragile equilibrium, given lack of spare supply in the near-term.
• LNG receiving capacity growth has been shaping market development over the past 24 months, as it reached an impressive 1,029.9 MTPA at the end of February 2024, adding almost 70 MTPA in 2023 and making it the highest year of new additions since 2010.
• 2023 saw spot LNG prices declining to levels palatable for recovery of import growth in Asia, as Platts JKM averaged $13.86/mmBtu during the year, while average annual price volatility has significantly reduced from 2022 levels but remains above pre-crisis.
• Global LNG market continues to rapidly evolve as it responds to growing gas demand in emerging markets, increasing number and diversification of market participants, and the acceleration of technology development and innovation.
• However, several major uncertainties confront the supply-constrained market, contributing the fragility of its current equillibrium.

Wholesale Gas Price Survey 2024 Edition

The International Gas Union (IGU) today releases its 2024 Global Wholesale Gas Price Survey report, the 16^th undertaken since 2005.

The global gas markets have continued to experience a period of significant transformation, with the most important trend being the growth of the share of competitively priced gas-on-gas (GOG) competition, largely at the expense of oil-price-escalation (OPE) pricing, and forms of regulated pricing. Following the shocks to prices in 2022, where the GOG share rose to over 50% (50.5%) of global gas consumption for the first time, the share fell back to just under 50% (49.7%) in 2023, a result of a move in India’s domestic pricing to OPE (which now dominates the market in India) and relatively weak European demand.

Global Gas Report 2023 Edition

The International Gas Union (IGU), Snam and knowledge partner Rystad Energy, today releases the 2023 Global Gas Report (GGR).

Global Gas Report 2023: The unprecedented demand uncertainty and insufficient level of investment in natural gas, low-carbon, and renewable gases are putting the energy transition at risk, undermining energy affordability, security, and sustainability.

Report Key Messages

• Having demonstrated significant resilience in the face of extreme shocks through 2022, the global gas industry came out of the most turbulent year in its history more agile and adaptable than ever, yet the global gas market is still in an unstable equilibrium in 2023.
• The gas market remains undersupplied, highly sensitive to fluctuations on supply and demand sides.
• Massive divergences across international energy and gas demand outlooks vis-à-vis low investments in natural gas, low carbon and renewable gases, fuels risk of worsened energy shocks toward 2030 and beyond.
• Natural gas, low carbon and renewable gases play a pivotal role in decarbonising energy systems around the world, helped by the adaptability of LNG infrastructure that delivers critically needed flexibility.
• A strengthened focus on comprehensive energy planning, low-carbon gases development, robust conservation measures to reduce demand, and CCS will determine the success of the energy transition.

Wholesale Gas PriceSurvey 2023 Edition

The International Gas Union (IGU) today releases its 2023 Global Wholesale Gas Price Survey report, the 15^th undertaken since 2005.

2022 was the most turbulent year in the history of gas markets, as the global energy crisis intensified and the global price levels reached record highs, in many markets as a consequence of exceptional tightness in the markets. The record high 56% of (GOG) Gas on Gas competition priced share of total imports (and over 50% in total gas consumed), helped the market respond to the energy crisis, with a significant rearrangement of global gas trade, which kept the lights on in Europe, but priced some buyers in Asia out.

2023 World LNG Report

• This is the 14th annual edition of the World LNG Report, the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
• As of April 2023, the global LNG trade connected 20 exporting markets with 48 markets with importing infrastructure, and an increasingly globalised LNG market made it possible to re-route massive volumes of energy in a matter of months.
• In 2022, global liquefaction capacity grew by 4.3% to a total of 478.4 MTPA, and 75% of the increase in 2022 came from the U.S., giving it the largest operational liquefaction capacity worldwide (88.1 MTPA). The volume of approved liquefaction capacity declined to 25.2 MTPA compared to the 50 MTPA approved in 2021.
• 2022 also saw record new regasification capacity approved, and some brought online, in record time in Europe.
• Very high prices at the European market entry helped make the massive redirection of LNG flows from Asia to Europe possible and balance the short-term market, while also causing demand destruction in some Asian markets. The traditionally higher Asian spot market price benchmarks traded at a discount to the European market for the first time for 85% of the February 2022 to January 2023 period.
• Asian demand reduced significantly in most locations, with the two fastest growing LNG markets in recent years, China, and India, reducing imports by 19.3% and 17.7% respectively.
• While prices moderated closer to historically average levels at the start of 2023, they remain elevated with an ongoing risk of a return to 2022 conditions.

Gas for Africa Report 2023

DESPITE HOLDING MORE THAN 8% OF THE WORLD’S PROVEN NATURAL GAS RESERVES, AFRICA REMAINS THE MOST ENERGY-POOR CONTINENT
Domestic Gas Resources Can Improve the Lives of Africa’s Young, Increasing Population, and Deliver the Energy it Needs to Develop within a Just Energy Transition.

The International Gas Union (IGU) in partnership with Hawilti Ltd. released an important new study on Gas for Africa, assessing the potential for domestic gas resources to energise Africa in line with the global energy transition. The African Energy Commission (AU-AFREC) and the Africa Finance Corporation endorse the report and its findings.

2022 Wholesale Price Report

The report series is unique source of information on global trends in gas price formation mechanisms and wholesale gas prices around the world.

The fourteen surveys taken together tell a very compelling story of significant evolution in wholesale price formation mechanisms, during a period of key developments and dynamic changes in the global gas markets.

This 2022 edition comes in a year when the gas markets have been experiencing unprecedented challenges and turbulence and gas consumers are struggling with abnormally high price levels. The findings of the report and its analysis confirm that there is now a functioning global gas market, and that despite the challenges faced by everyone in managing the high-price environment, a functioning market is the key to ensuring energy security. An effecient global market has allowed the necessary flexibility to reorganize gas supply flows to where they were required most in a matter of just a few months.

World LNG Report 2022

This 13th edition of the IGU World LNG report has become one of the most anticipated, in light of another, even more eventful year for the LNG sector.

The 2022 report is out at a time when LNG is more vital than ever to secure and reliable functioning of energy systems around the world. It is also a vital tool for controlling emissions, particularly as the crisis in energy supply is forcing even the most climate-conscious economies to turn back to coal, wiping out emissions reductions achieved in recent years.

Table of contents:

• State of the LNG Industry
• LNG Trade.–  Global LNG trade grew by 4.5% from 2020 to 2021, reaching an all-time high of 372.3 MT. A strong post-pandemic recovery resulted in a surge in LNG imports, even though the annual growth rate of 4.5% remains far from pre-COVID-19 levels of 13.0% in 2019.
• Price Trends.- Global LNG markets had an eventful year in 2021, with the market transitioning away from the conditions where supply exceeded COVID-19 lockdown demand and into a period of rapidly tightening market conditions, with resurgent demand rate exceeding supply additions. As a result, 2021 saw an almost complete reversal of many of the pricing trends seen over 2019-2020, with spot LNG prices surging to historic highs and staying above the long-term contract formulas that use either Brent or Henry Hub as their basis.
• LNG Liquefaction Plants.– About 6.9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefaction capacity was brought online in 2021, increasing global liquefaction capacity to 459.9 MTPA1 at the end of the year. The average global utilisation rate in 2021 was 80.4%, compared to 74.6% in 2020. In the first four months of 2022, an additional 12.5 MTPA of liquefaction capacity was brought online, bringing the total global liquefaction capacity to 472.4 MTPA as of April 2022.
• LNG Shpping.- With the delivery of 57 vessels1 in 2021 and seven in the first four months of 2022, the global LNG carrier fleet consisted of 641 active vessels1 as of end-of-April 2022, including 45 floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) and five floating storage units (FSUs). This represents a 10% growth in the fleet size from 2020 to 2021, comparable to a 12% growth in the number of LNG voyages as trade recovered from COVID-19-induced demand reductions.
• LNG  Recieving Terminals .- s of April 2022, global regasification capacity was 901.9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) across 40 markets. 49.8 MTPA of regasification capacity was added in 2021 with the commissioning of five new import terminals and the completion of five expansion projects at existing terminals, with the greatest addition of 11 MTPA at the Al Zour LNG import facility in Kuwait.
• LNG Bunkering Vessels and Terminals.- With the implementation of stricter environmental legislation to reduce emissions at both the local and international levels, a growing number of marine vessel owners are considering the use of cleaner alternative bunker fuels to achieve compliance. With effect from January 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) enforced a new global limit of 0.5% on the sulphur content of ships’ fuel oil. The imposition of a stricter sulphur content cap on marine bunker fuel has spurred the switch to LNG-fuelled vessels through the installation of new systems or conversion where possible, alongside the construction of related bunkering infrastructure.