US sees Asia dominating oil, gas demand
A new energy outlook published October 6 by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) suggests Asian economies will be the largest oil and gas importers globally by 2050 – and that greenhouse gas emissions will continue to increase at least until then.
In its International Energy Outlook 2021, the EIA said it expects renewable forms of energy will be the main component of new sources of electric power. That supports the move away from fossil fuels seen during the recent energy transition, though the agency said natural gas and coal, as well as batteries for storage, will play a role in grid reliability.
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That mirrors recent comments from officials in Qatar, who said earlier this week that natural gas will continue to serve as a stop-gap measure to address the intermittent nature of renewables.
The surge in natural gas prices, meanwhile, is pushing some power companies to lean on more polluting forms of energy such as coal and crude oil.
The EIA said that oil and gas production will continue to grow, with most of that output going to meet the surging demand from the developing economies in Asia.
Italian energy company Eni, in its own global outlook report, found it would be Asia that rises to the top in terms of demand, particularly for LNG.
Elsewhere, the EIA offered a troubling assessment of the trends in the effort to address climate change.
“If current policy and technology trends continue, global energy consumption and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will increase through 2050 as a result of population and economic growth,” its report read.