The International Energy Agency's Medium-Term Gas Market Report

The CSIS Energy and National Security Program hosted Laszlo Varro, Head of the Gas, Coal and Power Markets Division at the IEA to present the IEA's Medium-Term Gas Market Report. David Pumphrey, Co-Director and Senior Fellow in the CSIS Energy and National Security Program, moderated.

Global growth in natural gas use slowed measurably in 2012, although it still exceeded that of oil and total energy use. Among the headwinds facing gas are continuing weak demand in Europe, resilience of coal in North America as well as persistent bottlenecks and disruptions in the LNG value chain that in 2012 caused an exceptional global decline of LNG supply. At the same time, Asian demand for gas remains red-hot, and gas is beginning to gain traction as a transport fuel.

The IEA’s new Medium-Term Gas Market report provides a detailed analysis of demand, upstream investment and trade developments through 2018 that will shape the gas industry and the role of gas in the global energy system. Its special sections investigate the economic viability of gas-fired power generation in Europe, the prospects for an LNG trading hub in Asia as well as the potentially transformational role of natural gas in transport. Amid a continuous regional divergence between North American abundance, European weakness and Asian thirst for LNG, the 2013 Medium Term Gas Market report will investigate the key questions that the gas industry faces. These include the prospect of the United States becoming a major gas exporter, the challenges of securing enough gas to meet China’s growth, and the ability of Russian gas – spurred both by weak EU demand and resurgent domestic production – to find its manifest destiny in Asia.