Natural Gas Trend in Global Market

The US is the top consumer of natural gas and their consumption is seasonal. US producers start to build inventories from spring season to meet the heating demand for winter.

Due to environmental issues, the Chinese government is taking measures to switch from coal to natural gas for industrial and residential end users.

Currently, the country follows some stringent policies to control air pollution on winter, like closing of large industrial plants and swapping residential heating to natural gas from coal.  As per China government mandate, at least 10 percent of natural gas must be used in their energy mix for power generation by 2020.

Presently, China is the world’s largest oil and coal importer and is soon expected to become the top importer of gas as well.

For the past several years, coal is losing its flavour and natural gas, as well as other renewables, are expanding their market shares.

Compares to coal, natural gas is less polluting and increasingly available. Though it is a fossil fuel, the emissions while burning natural gas is much lower, almost half percent when compared with coal.

After the shale gas boom in the US and consequent massive investment in LNG plants in the US and Australia, the availability of the commodity has increased.

As per the latest report of IEA, World Energy Outlook 2018, the agency forecasts natural gas demand would overtake coal and become the second largest energy source after oil by 2030.

The agency expects global gas production would grow further in coming years due to new production methods like hydraulic fracturing and fracking.