Woodside Energy, Australia’s biggest LNG producer, on Tuesday warned that expectations of a major disruptive glut should not be taken at face value, as demand will remain strong and not all planned projects may proceed.
“Expectations of a sustained or structurally disruptive oversupply should be considered with caution,” Woodside Acting CEO Liz Westcott told Bloomberg in an interview.
While the executive acknowledged that the supply wave in the next few years could depress LNG prices, she noted that demand could strengthen due to more countries importing the fuel and the market becoming more liquid.
In addition, projects with high costs could be abandoned before proponents reach final investment decisions, according to Westcott.
Woodside itself has a project in the U.S., Louisiana LNG, developed and matured by former CEO Meg O’Neill, who left the Australia-based firm in December and is headed for BP’s top executive role starting in April.
Woodside and other LNG producers and key exporting countries have projected in recent months the belief that the market may become oversupplied in the near term, but will need even more projects to be approved to meet demand in the long term.
Japan’s Inpex, for example, expects an LNG supply shortfall in the Pacific coastal region, including Asia, in 2035, as demand will nearly double from current levels.
“Supply shortfall is expected in the Pacific coastal region, including Asia,” the Japanese company, which operates the Ichthys LNG project offshore Western Australia, said earlier this month.
Top exporters in the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), see strong demand going forward and flag insufficient investment in supply in the medium to long term.
The UAE is growing its LNG exports to meet surging global demand that will outpace investment in supply, Energy Minister Suhail al Mazrouei told Reuters at the end of last year.
“I agree with his excellency, Minister of Qatar, that the demand is going to be much, much more than the projects that we are seeing,” the UAE official added.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who is QatarEnergy’s CEO as well as the Minister of State for Energy Affairs of Qatar, said in December, “I have no worry at all about demand in the future.”
“I have a worry about the lack of investment for additional supply in the future, which will cause prices to spike,” Al-Kaabi added.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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