DOHA: RasGas Company Chief Executive Officer, Hamad Mubarak Al Mohannadi, said at Gastech, recently held in Singapore that the recent decline in liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices and the introduction of new players to the "LNG club" will require a collaborative effort from both LNG suppliers and buyers to adopt a long-term view for maintaining a sustainable LNG market.
Speaking on a suppliers’ panel debate entitled, "What will be the impact of lower oil and LNG prices on LNG buyers and sellers over the next 5 years?" on the inaugural day of the four-day event, Al Muhannadi highlighted the long-term nature of the LNG business, the company said in a press statement today.
"LNG buyers are currently comfortable with the availability of LNG and have a general wait-and-see attitude towards making new longer term commitments. However, if LNG suppliers fail to develop resources required to meet forecasted longer term demand growth – at the right time and place - there will be a supply and demand imbalance with longer term implications for LNG prices. It is therefore vital that we work together and not lose sight of the fact that LNG is a long-term business," said Al Muhannadi.
Speaking on the growing positive role LNG will play in the global fuel mix, Al-Mohannadi pointed out that the 'voice of gas' is increasingly being heard supporting the further penetration of natural gas in the energy supply mix.
"To help this vision along, we - as an industry - need to encourage the implementation of both market and policy-focused reforms that facilitate natural gas’ increased penetration. Both buyers and sellers need to work together to honour contractual commitments and to jointly influence and enhance the role of gas by providing appropriate support for initiatives promoted by governments and regulatory agencies," he added.
The Gastech conference and exhibition is held approximately once every 18 months. This is RasGas’ tenth consecutive participation in the industry event. The Qatar delegation was led by the State’s national petrochemical company, Qatar Petroleum.
RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) is a Qatari joint stock company established in 2001 by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. RasGas acts as the operating company for and on behalf of the owners of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects RL, RL (II) and RL3 (Project Owners). With operations facilities based in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, RasGas’ principal activities are to extract, process, liquefy, store and export LNG and its derivatives from Qatar’s North Field. RasGas, on behalf of the Project Owners, exports to countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas with a total LNG production capacity of approximately 37 million tonnes per annum.
QNA
