Snam Launches Its First 'Global Gas Report'

Global gas demand is at an "inflection point", according to a new study, Global Gas Report, published September 29 by Italian grid operator Snam and the BCG Center for Energy Impact. The latter was created October 2016 by the US Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The report highlights key global natural gas market trends and how they may affect the industry. Most data cited however is up to 2016, and the report’s five key findings may not surprise those tracking the global gas sector.

Snam CEO Marco Alvera, presenting the report, said it suggests that global gas demand is potentially at an inflection point, driven by increasing liquidity, improving cost competitiveness compared with other fuels, and the more favourable view taken of gas given the need to cut carbon emissions. But the report sees there are still barriers to gas – especially in the key growth region of Asia.

The report’s executive summary noted that The golden age of gas?” – the title of the International Energy Agency's famous 2011 study – has been delayed but not necessarily cancelled.

In the US, the shale gas boom since 2011 has exceeded expectations. But the report notes how, after a period of consumption decline in Europe and slower-than-expected adoption in Asia, gas demand is rebounding in key markets with also “positive signs in terms of greater supply liquidity and cost decline which may support consumption growth going forwards.”

Robin West, of the BCG Center for Energy Impact, said: “With substantial new trade capacity coming online in the near term – most significantly as LNG, but also new pipelines – many are waiting to see if demand follows. At stake is substantial further investment across the global gas value chain which will, in turn, continue to set the long-term trajectory for natural gas as a fuel. This report makes an important contribution highlighting the drivers of gas growth and what it will take for reality to match projections.”

The report may be a way to promote the Snam brand to a wider global audience as it participates more actively in international tenders and investments.

Mark Smedley