Australian Financial Review: BG Group CEO Confident of LNG Outlook; New Australian Project on Track

The head of UK gas producer BG Group has voiced satisfaction with the early performance from the company's $US20.4 billion ($25.8 billion) liquefied natural gas project in Queensland and dismissed concerns that the LNG market is set to run into trouble.

BG chief executive Helge Lund said the group was confident that the long-term LNG outlook was "robust", despite hedge fund manager Jim Chanos describing the market this week as "a disaster waiting to happen".

Mr Lund said BG expected growth in gas demand of 4 per cent to 6 per cent a year through to the end of next decade. He said while new supply was coming onto the market in the short term through the start-up of plants in Australia, new projects were still needed to satisfy demand beyond 2020.

Mr Chanos, founder of hedge fund Kynikos Associates, told a conference in Las Vegas on Thursday he was betting against the shares of BG and Shell, which agreed in March to buy BG for about $US70 billion because of poor prospects for LNG, where supply capacity was set to "rocket". MORE