The Gazprom Board of Directors took note of the information about the development prospects of the shale gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) industries around the world, as well
as opportunities and threats facing the Company.
It was noted that there are still only four countries producing shale gas: the US, China, Argentina, and Canada. The global shale gas production grew by 6 per cent in 2022 versus 2021.
In the long-term development forecasts for the shale sector, the US foresees that its shale gas production volumes can either go up or considerably decrease. At the same time, there will be a number of factors contributing to the increase in the cost of shale gas production. These factors include inflation, depletion of the existing fields and no discoveries of new fields, as well as the fact that the potential for increasing the production efficiency through improving the relevant technologies is almost exhausted. The increased production cost will influence, inter alia, the price of LNG produced with the use of shale gas.
According to industry experts, the global trade of LNG went up by 4 per cent in 2022 versus 2021. However, the growth slowed down in the first nine months of 2023 and was only 2 per cent against the same period of 2022.
In the future, a significant increase in LNG production is expected to be observed, for instance, in the US, Qatar and Russia, while a decrease is foreseen to take place in Australia. A significant contribution to the development of the domestic LNG sector will be made by Gazprom. As a result, Russia can become one of the three largest global LNG producers.
In the long term, the bulk of the growth in the global LNG demand is expected to come from China, India and Southeast Asia. In Europe, on the contrary, LNG imports can go down as compared to the record-high level of 2022. This will be to a great extent driven by the region's reduced gas consumption against the background of a continued weakening of its economic and industrial capacity. Another factor is a small number of LNG supply contracts concluded, which covers less than 20 per cent of the capacities of Europe's regasification terminals as projected for 2035.
Failures by LNG suppliers and producers to perform their obligations under long-term contracts continue to take place in the global market. Unscrupulous actions of individual companies from Europe and the US have a negative effect on the reliability of gas supplies to consumers.
The Management Committee was tasked with continuing to evaluate the development prospects of the shale gas and LNG industries around the world.
