Over the past decade, the Asia-Pacific region has remained world leader in increasing demand for LNG. According to the BP World Energy Review, the region accounted for 87% of the global increase in LNG imports. In addition to urbanisation and rapid economic growth, the construction of new LNG regasification terminals has played a key role here. According to GEM, by July 2022 Asia possessed 110 such terminals with a total capacity of 544 million tons per year, while all other regions of the world had 78 terminals with a capacity of 381 million tons per year. Japan remains the leader in terms of development of the “receiver” infrastructure, which accounts for almost a quarter of the global operating capacity of regasification terminals (228 million tons of LNG per year); it is followed by South Korea (105 mtpa), China (96 mtpa) and India (48 mtpa).
However, in the 2020’s China may catch up with Japan in this area. While by July 2022 China had 24 terminals under construction with a total capacity of 85 million tons per year, not a single such project was implemented in Japan. That being said, there are also new growth points emerging in the region: in addition to India, where 5 terminals with a total capacity of 33 million tons of LNG per year are being built, there are Philippines and Vietnam, which, thanks to seven projects with a total capacity of almost 14 million tons per year, will join the cohort of LNG importing countries.
Europe, with its 9 terminals for 24 million tons of LNG per year under construction, and South America, where 4 projects with a total capacity of 12 million tons per year are being implemented, will also become the driver regions of the industry in the coming years. The European projects are designed to increase the host infrastructure flexibility. For instance, by July 2022 neither Germany nor Cyprus had a single operating terminal for receiving LNG; however, two projects with a total capacity of 6 million tons per year are currently under construction in these countries, with seven more (43 million tons per year) being at the pre-investment stage. As for South America, Brazil is the undisputed leader here. In addition to the already operating five terminals with a total capacity of 26 million tons per year, three more projects with a capacity of almost 12 million tons per year are being implemented here.
Finally, Africa, where Egypt still possesses over 90% of the existing regasification capacities, may acquire its own “receiver” infrastructure in Ghana, where one terminal for 1.7 million tons of LNG per year is being built, as well as in South Africa, Mozambique and Morocco, where 7 projects with a total capacity of 12 million tons per year are undergoing their the pre-investment stage.
