Global demands for gas will reduce in 2009 and 2010: report
Negative forecasts for industrial output in developed nations will reduce the global demand for natural gas in 2009 and 2010 while potentially setting back the market for up to ten years, a report said today.
Demands for natural gas had fallen for the first time in history, an exception for a resource whose sales volumes have rose at an average rate of four per cent annually between 1965 and 2007, the Booz & Company report titled 'An Unprecedented Market' said.
Coupled with the shortage of demand and new gas export developments already underway, the report said that the market will be in a position of oversupply of between 5 and 15 per cent this year and the next.
"This unprecedented worldwide drop in demand for natural gas may well set back global natural gas markets in terms of growth and profitability, by as much as 10 years," George Sarraf, a Partner at Booz & Company, said.
Before the recession hit last year, analysts predicted world gas demand to steadily grow two per cent per annum on average for the foreseeable future - almost double the growth for oil.
The economic downturn and resulting decline in output, however, prompted a decline in natural gas demand of energy-intensive industries, the report added.
