IEA: Gas Demand Set to Recover 3.6 Percent in 2021

IEA: Gas Demand Set to Recover 3.6 Percent in 2021

The demand will keep rising further if governments do not implement strong policies to move the world onto a path towards net-zero emissions by mid-century, added the IEA's latest quarterly Gas Market Report, which also provides a new medium-term forecast. By 2024, demand is forecast to be up 7% from 2019's pre-Covid levels.

Natural gas demand growth in 2021 mostly reflects economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, but it's set to be driven in the following years in equal proportions by economic activity and by gas replacing other more polluting fuels such as coal and oil in sectors such as electricity generation, industry and transport. Almost half of the increase in gas demand between 2020 and 2024 comes from the Asia Pacific region.

Despite slower growth in the coming years, gas demand by 2024 is trending higher than the trajectories in the IEA's climate-driven scenarios, notably the pathway set out in the recent