Africa to Pip US in Meeting Global LNG Trade Growth

Seaborne gas exports from Africa will play a bigger role in catering to global LNG trade growth that US, according to International Energy Agency (IEA).

Africa's LNG exporters in Nigeria, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea are set for a new supply wave coming from major new discoveries off the coasts of Mozambique and Tanzania, news agency Reuters quoted Laszlo Varro, head of gas and power at the IEA as saying.

Varro who was speaking at the Flame gas conference in Amsterdam said that the US will fall behind as abundant gas supply muscles coal out of the domestic energy mix, creating huge demand for cheaper gas-fired power generation.

"Africa will play a bigger role supplying the global trade growth than the US," Varro said.

"Coal is in serious trouble in the United States, from (U.S. President Barack) Obama's administration climate policies to U.S. environmental regulations limiting emissions, we see a very large U.S. coal fleet being decommissioned in the next several years and almost no new coal plants being built," he added, according to Reuters.

However, Varro stressed that meaningful quantities of US LNG will still be exported and gas production driven by shale-gas drilling will see a "glorious decade" in the 2020s, but output will roughly come back to 2014 levels by 2040.