Gazprom Board of Directors Reviews Development Prospects of Shale Gas and LNG Sectors Worldwide

The global trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is consistently expanding; by 2035, it can grow by almost 70 per cent versus its current volume. In 2024, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and Europe remained the main importers of LNG. The Asia-Pacific countries are expected to continue to play a key role in the LNG consumption growth.

At present, Russia is among the leading LNG exporters, alongside with the US, Qatar, Australia, and Malaysia. According to current forecasts, by 2035, the US, Qatar and Russia will provide the greatest contribution to the growth in the LNG supply available in the market. The implementation of Gazprom's projects in both pipeline gas and LNG sectors will contribute to strengthening Russia's foothold in the global gas market, mainly in the Asia-Pacific countries which are going to demonstrate an active growth of gas demand.

At the same time, in the US, considering the record-high number of new LNG export projects announced in 2025, it is possible that the producers of liquefied natural gas will face difficulties in ensuring that their plants operate at full capacity and the buyers of LNG will see a significant increase in the product price in the future. This is due to the limited resource base and the growing competition for feed gas between the US domestic consumers and exporters of LNG.

The global shale gas production in 2024 remained at the level of 2023, and at the same time the share of shale gas in the global gas production has slightly decreased. Most of shale gas, 94 per cent, was produced in the US, and just 6 per cent – in China, Argentina and Canada. One of the incentives for the US producers to continue shale gas production is the prices observed in the country's domestic market, as they have significantly increased in 2025.

As per forecasts, in the long term, the development pace of the global shale gas production will be mainly influenced by the fact that there are no new large shale gas fields in the US. In other regions of the world, shale gas production will be limited and will not have any effect on the global gas market dynamics.

Russia has the world's largest proven gas reserves at conventional fields the development of which offers clear economic and environmental benefits. Therefore, Gazprom does not consider shale gas production in Russia to be a promising direction of the Company's activities.