The demand for novel coronavirus pneumonia has led to a weak demand for LNG importing countries, and global LNG demand will be the first seasonal decline in 8 years. Demand for the summer will drop by 2.7% over the same period.
According to giignl’s annual report on LNG industry 2020, Asia is the “leader” in LNG import in 2019, accounting for 69% of global LNG import, while Europe’s import increased by 75.6%, accounting for more than 90% of global LNG import increment.
In Asia, wood McKenzie expects Japan’s LNG demand to fall 3% year on year in the second quarter. On the one hand, measures such as school suspension and home office work affected the LNG demand in the first quarter of Japan; on the other hand, affected by last year’s warm winter, Japan’s inventory level was higher than the average. In addition, wood McKenzie expects India’s LNG demand to fall 24% year-on-year in the second quarter.
The market generally believes that Europe is an important factor to balance the global LNG market in 2020. The total demand for natural gas in Europe has declined year on year, but the natural gas production in Europe and the gas import from Russian pipeline have decreased, creating greater space for LNG absorption.
Wood McKenzie predicted that global LNG demand will slightly increase by about 5 million tons this winter compared with the previous year, with strong growth expected to resume in mid-2021.