Rystad Energy: Global gas production achieved highest growth in a decade in 2018
The industry achieved a net production increase of 164 billion cu m in 2018, which represents the highest production growth since 2010, according to research by Rystad Energy.
“Year-on-year growth was clearly driven by North America, which accounted for 71 billion cu m, followed by the Middle East with 39 billion cu m. Europe was the only region that experienced a reduction in 2018,” Espen Erlingsen, Rystad Energy Partner, said.
Rystad Energy forecasts the supply surge will continue in the coming years. Expected average annual growth from 2018 to 2021 is 115 billion cu m, which would outpace the average annual growth from 2011 to 2017 by 90%.
“Going forward, global growth will be driven primarily by North American gas, which is going through an LNG development phase,” Mr Erlingsen added.
Rystad Energy expects that US gas production will reach almost 1,000 billion cu m per day by 2025.
The weakest global annual growth was observed in the 2015-2016 cycle, when global gas output grew by only 12 billion cu m. This was also the only period in which North America experienced a year-on-year reduction in gas production growth.
