Opec Sees Gas Demand up 4%
Global gas demand grew about 4% last year compared with 2016, reaching 3.714 trillion cubic metres, according to oil producers' group Opec in a report June 8. Marketed gas production rose by 3% to about 3.737 trillion m³. Except for Latin America where demand fell 2.2%, demand grew everywhere, led by the Middle East at 10.3% growth.
Details of gas demand based on regions:
|
Region |
Demand (mn m³) |
Y/Y change |
|
North America |
891,504 |
1% |
|
Latin America |
217,145 |
-2.2% |
|
E Europe and Eurasia |
663,108 |
6.1% |
|
Western Europe |
505,137 |
4.9% |
|
Middle East |
543,299 |
10.3% |
|
Africa |
138,324 |
2.2% |
|
Asia Pacific |
755,913 |
4.5% |
|
World |
3,714,429 |
4% |
Opec’s statistics do not tally with official reports or other international statistics. For instance, it has put the total LNG and piped gas import for China at 90.874bn m3 (24.8% growth), while the official statistics put the figure at 68.6mn metric tons (about 96bn m3) with 26.9% growth. The production and demand figures for China also differ from the official statistics.
Its statistics for US also contrast with the US Energy Information Administration’s, estimating marketed production at 762.276bn m3, while officially it is reported at 760.7bn m3.
Marketed production in both reports corresponds to gross production, minus the volumes of gas flared or re-injected into fields, minus the shrinkage.
In some cases, the statistics are very different from official statistics, like Iran. It put Iran’s marketed gas production at 238bn m³, while official statistics put the figure at 214.5bn m³. Iran has stopped gas import from its only supplier Turkmenistan since January 2017, but Opec says Iran halved gas imports by to 4.7bn m3 in 2017.
UK major BP put marketed gas production for 2016 at a little more than 3.551 trillion m3, about 2.2% less than Opec’s estimation. It is publishing its own figures this week. At time of press, Opec had not explained the differences between its figures and other published figures.
Opec saw gas exports up 5.3%at 1.178 trillion m³, unsurprisingly led by the recent growth from the US. which saw 35.7% growth. This represents an extra 23.585bn m³ on top of 89.718bn m³. But it also imported 86.087bn m³, about 1.1% more than 2016. Official US figures June 7 said the US had only become a net exporter once more in Q1 2018.
Coming to net gas exporters, Australia boosted exports by 27.4% to 74.735bn m³, while its imports were only 6.2bn m³. Russian exports also grew 2.1% to 212.486bn m³, while Iran’s exports soared to about 13bn m³, experiencing about 51% growth on year thanks to the start of exports to Iraq in June 2017.
Source: OPEC