Natural gas will have a critical role throughout the energy transition, helping decarbonise economies while also providing the affordable and secure energy needed to foster prosperity and underpin the development of AI capabilities, speakers said. At the world’s largest annual exhibition and conference for natural gas, there was a prevailing sense of confidence in the fuel’s demand outlook and in its economic and societal value. That confidence came not only from senior executives across the gas industry but also from political leaders who addressed the gathering. “We believe in gas in the short, medium, and long term,” Freeman Shaheen, president of Chevron Global Gas, added. Chevron has likewise expanded its LNG trading operations substantially in recent years. The CEO of leading US exporter Cheniere Energy, Jack Fusco, and Musabbeh al Kaabi, head of upstream at Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC, both said they anticipated their gas businesses expanding over the next two decades and potentially beyond. 

US engineering group Baker Hughes also expects gas demand to keep growing “for the next two decades [as] new technologies come on stream,” CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said. Despite concerns about oversupply emerging, he noted that the market appeared to be self-correcting, pointing to a record number of offtake agreements signed in recent months. That confidence was matched by the commercial activity at the event. Turkiye’s BOTAS signed new contracts with eight LNG suppliers covering around 15 bcm of annual volumes over the next three years. Italy’s Edison reached a deal with Shell for 0.7mn tonnes per year of LNG for 15 years from 2028. TotalEnergies agreed to supply 1mn tpy to KOGAS (Republic of Korea) for 10 years starting in 2027. POSCO (Republic of Korea) signed a preliminary agreement to take 1mn tpy from US firm Glenfarne’s Alaska LNG subsidiary, while Japan’s JERA signed a letter of intent on potential offtake from the same liquefaction facility. 

Additional expansion is expected across the Middle East and Africa as well. Even in Europe, where consumption is widely forecast to decline over the coming decades, opportunities for new gas supply exist as the continent works to eliminate coal, speakers said.