The Future Of The Global Market For Natural Gas

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the current state of the global market for natural gas and some forecasts for its long-term development. Regional and sectoral aspects of gas production and consumption are considered. Particular attention is paid to the development priorities of the gas industry in the countries of East and South Asia. During the period of economic slowdown, the imbalance of supply and demand in the global hydrocarbon market leads to its destabilization. In order to predict such situations, experts from international and Russian organizations (International Energy Agency, BP plc, Energy Re-search Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Energy Economics of Japan) and consulting companies (IHS Markit) periodically publish works on the evolution of world energy markets and the possible consequences for Russia and other countries. Nevertheless, in the foreseeable future none of the authors is likely to predict the period of peak gas demand even for the world's largest economies (with the exception of the European Union and de-veloped countries of Asia), which gives reason to call the twenty hundreds “the century of natural gas”.