Global LNG to Continue on Growth Trajectory

The LNG market enters 2021 with reports of a South Korean company planning to use LNG-cooled warehouses for bulk storage of Covid-19 vaccines as conventional cold distribution chains could be stretched.
This is emblematic of how LNG is finding new uses in Asia where gas exporters are looking to the industrial, petrochemical, city gas and transportation sectors to become major sources of demand, supplementing traditional LNG use in the power sector, S&P Global reported.
These sectors, ranging from LNG bunkering in Singapore to residential gas usage in India, will gain traction in 2021 even as new countries in Southeast Asia like the Philippines and Vietnam are expected to progress towards their first LNG regasification projects.
Asia's LNG market liberalization will gather pace in 2021 as government policy and third party access to infrastructure opens up the gas and power sectors for non-state players in China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan and even countries that have yet to start importing LNG.
On the supply side, regional exporters like Indonesia and Malaysia, and producers like Thailand and Myanmar, will continue to struggle with structural declines in domestic gas production. China, the largest gas producer in the region, will hit record high domestic gas output, but still miss its own targets.
This leaves the region at the mercy of suppliers, although LNG will remain a buyers' market in 2021 due to marginal global oversupply.
Big gas exporters Qatar, the US and Russia -- the trio famously known as the Camel, the Eagle and the Bear in the oil market -- will further entrench their foothold in Asia as they fight for market share in 2021.