Reuters: Global LNG market to grow 4 percent a year, pivot to Asia

The global market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will shift further to Asia by 2020, where high prices will attract new supply sources, while Europe will remain dependent on pipeline supplies and North America will become a marginal LNG exporter.

Trading in LNG will rise by over 4 percent per year between now and 2020, with Asia taking the lion's share, said Jason Gammel, an analyst at Australian bank Macquarie

The value of LNG cargoes will rise to around $325 billion, up from $250 billion in 2011, based on global supplies of 460 million tonnes per annum and an oil-linked contract price around $15 a million British thermal units (mmBtu), Gammel said.

"The Pacific is the main area of LNG supply growth, (and) the share of global LNG absorbed by the Pacific and Middle East increases, reducing the LNG volume available to the Atlantic," energy research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said.  MORE