Global LNG demand to increase as first-timers enter market, ADNOC Gas CFO predicts

(Bloomberg) – Global liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand is expected to increase further as more countries turn to imports for the first time, ADNOC Gas’ Chief Financial Officer Peter Van Driel said.

To tap some of these new consumers, parent company ADNOC is building a new plant at Ruwais that will more than double the UAE’s LNG export capacity when it starts operating in 2028. Oman and Qatar are also expanding their LNG production facilities.

“We see growth in the United Arab Emirates economy, but equally if we look in particular at LNG, we see huge demand,” Van Driel said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “There are many markets that are upcoming and really start to convert to LNG import markets,” he said, without naming individual countries.

The UAE firm expects global gas demand to grow 14% in the next decade, according to the company’s second-quarter financial results. That’s more bullish than other forecasts. For example, the International Energy Agency sees usage peaking by the end of this decade already.

“When we took our decision to build Ruwais LNG, we were confident of three things — we were confident that we had enough gas, we understood how much it would cost to build and we had to know we could sell all of the LNG,” Van Driel said in a roundtable with reporters.

ADNOC Gas shares gained as much as 4.3% on Monday after second-quarter net income rose 21% to $1.2 billion from a year earlier.