The International Energy Agency says that China’s demand for gas will double between now and 2017.
The representative body for OECD oil consumers says China’s consumption will grow 13% year on year, keeping pace with the US, with the speed of the latter’s demand growth spurred by cheap shale gas undercutting coal prices.
European gas demand is set to grow at an annual rate of 7.9%.
China is also beginning to tap its shale gas resources, with early results from Shell’s activities proving encouraging.
The IEA says that booming demand from Asia will aid the US’s drive to begin exporting sizeable quantities of LNG, and absorb a huge gas export drive from Australia and in the medium term East Africa.
