LNG and oil: market dynamics

摘要

Regional markets are highly differentiated in their buying patterns and the scale of LNG use. The largest market, Asia, in 2013, accounted for 73.2% of global LNG demand, consuming 183.2 million tons. By contrast, Europe, the second biggest regional market, accounted for just 15.8%, or 39.6 mtpa. The third largest, South and Central America, consumed 6%, or 15.1 mtpa. Scale is one aspect of the market, which is clearly dominated by Asia, but buying patterns are another. Japan and South Korea, the two largest national markets, accounted for just over half of global LNG consumption combined in 2013. Neither country have significant domestic natural gas production and neither have any natural gas import pipelines – their gas systems are solely dependent on LNG.