EMEA News
CEO: LNG Demand Secure, Supply in Question
The chief executive of a Qatar-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier says demand for the fuel is secure thanks partly to a push for LNG-powered ships by various governments, but supply is facing challenges as export projects face delays and rising costs, Qatari daily newspaper The Peninsula reports.
"If we cannot satisfy this increasing demand, then the opportunity that LNG has to be the fuel of choice may be compromised," Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, CEO of RasGas Company Limited, told participants at the 17th International Conference and Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas in Texas Wednesday.
Al Mohannadi said pushes for LNG bunkering in Australia, Korea, and the European Union, along with efforts to promote LNG powered vehicles in the U.S., support continuing growth in demand.
"Increasing demand for ecofriendly fuels and evolving LNG importing facilities will render natural gas the fuel of choice in the next decade," he said.
Al Mohannadi added that LNG projects have advanced in technology, scale, and complexity over the past decade, but he warned that delays in the construction of new projects threaten the growth of supply.
Still, he predicted that "the market may ease by 2020" and called for stronger industry advocacy efforts.
Plans for new LNG plants in Australia have been hard hit by rising costs, and one developer recently dropped plans for a $46 billion project, citing "cost escalation."
