Speaking at the South-East Asia Australia Offshore Conference (SEAAOC) in Darwin ABARE’s chief economist Karen Schneider said that by 2015 the region’s LNG market could range from 150 million tonnes per annum to 164 million tonnes, with the three key regional importers being Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
Other nations likely to begin imports of Asia-Pacific LNG include the US, New Zealand and the Philippines as all three struggle with declining domestic gas production.
In some good news for BHPB’s offshore California terminal bid, ABARE believes the US domestic gas pipeline network will not be ready for the increase in LNG demand, which could therefore warrant the development of one or two west coast LNG receiving terminals by 2015.
