Platts: Strong Asian demand will keep Europe LNG tight: Flame

Strong Asian demand will keep LNG supplies tight in the European Union until 2015 at least, when new capacity upstream comes online in Australia, in particular, delegates at the Flame gas conference in Amsterdam heard Monday.

"It's a tug of war between the two markets," said Howard Rogers of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Thereafter, though, the situation becomes a lot cloudier. Rogers questioned the "green" mantra in the EU that the price of gas will inevitably go up.

"We think prices will be uncertain, but in either direction," he said. This uncertainty comes from political confusion in the EU, said Total's head of LNG supply, Guy Broggi.

"In Asia, energy planning is done by governments or companies very close to governments, so they can do a 20 year contract deal with oil indexation to guarantee supply. But in the EU and the US, the future belongs to the trading community."  MORE