Lots of LNG
Australia and the US brought significant new supply on line. But who would buy it all?
In 2017, liquefied natural gas producers looked with hope to the future—and some worry at the present. Demand, they believed, would one day catch up. In the meantime, much new seaborne gas floated often aimlessly into the market. By early 2017, global nameplate liquefaction capacity had reached 340m tonnes a year, more than twice the number from 2005. Another 45m t/y was scheduled to start up by the end of 2017 too (and then another 30m in 2018, and more after that). The long-predicted flood of supply seemed, in 2017, to have arrived. Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and Cameroon all chipped in—or would by year-end - but the bulk of the LNG came from two countries. Australia in 2017 entered the f
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
