Letter from Singapore: Asia’s LNG love story still needs writing

Gas is set for major growth in Asia but countries in the region are moving at differing paces and some remain highly sensitive to prices

LNG needs to address its public relations problem. Industry experts at Petroleum Economist’s Asian LNG Strategy event in Singapore in May grappled hard with how to describe the fuel. Parallels with the parable of the blind men and the elephant came to mind as the speakers described it as a fossil fuel, a transition fuel, a back-up fuel, a bridging fuel, a growth fuel and a potential primary fuel for some countries in the region. The opportunity and anecdotal evidence is there for huge LNG growth in Asia, but policymakers and industry participants will need to muster the confidence to invest both figuratively and literally. “Expanding reliance on natural gas imports is a far-reaching op