Japanese oil and gas firm Inpex plans to accelerate the expansion of its LNG production and sales business, predicting that the market will continue to be tight in the medium term, its CEO told Reuters on January 12.

“Global LNG market is expected to remain tight in the mid-term due to the structural change of the global natural gas market since the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” CEO Takayuki Ueda told the news agency.

The LNG market was on track for significant growth before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine a year ago. While high prices are set to result in subdued demand for natural gas globally in the years ahead, subsequent drastic cuts to Russian pipeline supplies to Europe have driven up demand for LNG.

“We’ll make more efforts to acquire assets that can respond to future demand growth of LNG, including expanding Ichthys, " Ueda said, referring to Inpex’s liquefaction project in Australia.

Inpex plans to ramp up LNG production and sales faster than it had targeted in its medium-term strategy unveiled last February, before the war in Ukraine began. Output at Ichthys is due to rise from 8.9mn tonnes currently to 9.3mn tonnes in 2024. And Inpex plans to explore the surrounding areas to find extra resources to underpin a further expansion in Ichthys’ capacity around 2030, potentially.

©2023 bne IntelliNews , source Magazine