Speaking to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association before the 2011 APPEA Conference and Exhibition in Perth, BP group chief economist Christof Ruhl said events such as the tragic Japanese earthquake and tsunami would cause the de-linking of LNG prices from oil prices in Asia to proceed a lot slower.

The economist, who was optimistic about the fast growing LNG market, added that BP foresaw another strong jump in global LNG demand between 2015 and 2017, "when, hopefully, a lot of projects will be coming online, particularly from Australia".

BP had predicted in its Energy Outlook 2030 report, which he supervised, that Australia could overtake Qatar as the world's largest LNG exporter at around 2020.

Ruhl was also positive about how fast the "so-called" shale gas revolution would spread from the US to the rest of the world.

"We see continued growth in the US from unconventional resources and we also see rapid growth of consumption in Europe, driven by imports via pipelines and LNG, as well as in Asia - particularly in China."

Turning to oil, he said the world was not running out of the fuel.

"There is enough oil underground. The problem, as ever, is access to it."

Ruhl will be speaking at the 11am plenary session on April 11.