SUPPLY constrictions caused by liquefied natural gas project capacity outages and upstream under-performance contributed to a rapid tightening of the global gas market in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). LNG supply outages broke records in 2021 and project delays could be especially severe in 2024, the IEA said in its "Gas Market Report Q1-2022" released Monday. Some of the LNG outages were attributed to temporary unplanned issues and disruption to maintenance schedules caused by Covid-19 and the knock-on effects of the pandemic in 2020. In the absence of strong policies to curb demand growth while pushing for net zero emission targets, a combination of recent LNG project delays, the relatively small number of final investment decisions for LNG projects in 2020-2021 and a structural decline in upstream spending since the early 2010s mean the adequacy of natural gas supply is likely to remain a key medium-term challenge to the global economy and to policy makers, noted the IEA.
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