MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. Russia’s share in global production of liquefied natural gas will exceed 9% in 2024 and with the launch of Arctic LNG 2 project its LNG exports will grow by about 15% or 5 million tons, Andrey Ryabov, chief expert of the department for analytics in the oil and gas industry of the Fuel and Energy Complex analytical center, told TASS.
"In 2024, the growth of the LNG market will continue. The increase in [global] production and exports could be about 3% from the 2023 level, to about 420 million tons. The largest LNG exporting countries will maintain their positions on the market, with a significant increase in production expected only in Russia and the USA," Ryabov said.
He noted that this year Russia’s independent gas producer plans to launch the first stage of the Arctic LNG-2 plant (6.6 million tons per year).
"By the end of 2024, LNG exports may increase to 38 million tons per year (+5 million tons year-on-year)," the expert noted.
According to the forecast of the analytical center of the fuel and energy complex, in 2024 the United States will increase LNG exports at the same level as Russia - by 4-5 million tons per year, to about 90 million tons, by maintaining high capacity utilization. Qatar and Australia will maintain gas supplies at last year's level, 79-80 million tons each, the expert believes.
In addition to that, the commissioning of new LNG capacities is expected to begin in the second half of 2024, Sergey Kaufman, an analyst at Finam Financial Group, told TASS.
"In total, over this year, projects with a total capacity of about 50 billion cubic meters per year can be commissioned. Most of the new capacity will be in the United States," he said.
As Ryabov noted, in 2024 new countries will enter the LNG market: in particular, it is planned to start LNG supplies from projects in Congo, Mexico, Senegal and Mauritania. According to his calculations, next year these new players can additionally supply up to 3 million tons of LNG to the market.
In 2025, the global LNG market is expected to undergo more global changes: the production of liquefied gas may increase by another 30 million tons, tripling the 2024 growth.
"Market growth may accelerate significantly against the backdrop of the planned launch and growth of production at several plants in the USA (Plaquemines LNG, Corpus Christi LNG and Golden Pass LNG), the achievement of peak productivity by the projects of "new" players planned for launch in 2024, the start LNG exports from Canada, as well as further growth in production in Russia," Ryabov noted.