We are proud to be the National Media Partner of this important event, which will attract thousands of LNG professionals from all over the world to Perth, Western Australia.
While the plummeting oil price has sent shock waves through Australia’s natural gas industry, its LNG sector will continue to strengthen in coming years.
The International Energy Agency has predicted global gas demand to increase by around 50 per cent to 2040. In China, total gas consumption is expected to more than double by 2030. India’s LNG demand is also expected to nearly double by 2019-20, as it seeks to provide power to more than
300 million people for the first time.
Australia’s reputation as a stable and reliable supplier of LNG and our proximity to these emerging markets provide us with a competitive advantage to meet this demand, which is expected to result in Australia providing 40 per cent of both Japan and China’s LNG requirement.
LNG is also going to provide the strongest growth in resource export earnings, increasing to AU$45 billion by 2019-20 when Australia is expected to become the world’s largest LNG exporter.
However, the question of commercialising new LNG projects in order to sustain this growth is a big question for the industry and government.
Reform of industrial relations and energy policy, which will (hopefully) be meaningfully addressed in the upcoming federal election, coupled with the development of a national gas supply strategy through the COAG Energy Council, will assist decision-makers charged with this difficult task.
We hope you enjoy this edition, in which we provide our visiting international readers a comprehensive overview of the LNG state of play in Australia; analysis of COP21 and its impact on natural gas; and provide insight into an exciting innovation in the interplay of natural gas and renewable power storage, through the pilot of power to gas technology throughout the European Union.