Shell continues to strongly believe in LNG, the company’s CEO Wael Sawan said March 18 in Houston during CERAWeek by S&P Global.

Sawan said the fuel source would be used as a backfill for coal, particularly in Asia, for energy security, adding that LNG currently makes up around 13% of gas sales but was expected to grow to around 20% in the coming 15 to 20 years.

The bulk of that growth is related to coal-to-gas switching in certain Asian countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh where the current infrastructure is gas-based because of domestic production in the past, Sawan said. As reserves decline, LNG can allow those countries to fully utilize their infrastructure, he said.

“The key point will be on the prices of LNG,” Sawan said as “LNG is expected to grow 50% from today to around 650 million [tonnes per annum] to 760 million tonnes per annum by [2040].”

“You have supply coming out of the U.S. and Qatar, the two big giants in that space for now depending on where the [U.S.] administration goes with the long-term LNG pause.”

Shell expects to see good LNG supply in the second half of this decade.

“We see a huge amount of latent demand for LNG at the right price point. So, what will happen is there will be a huge amount of uptake in places like India, in places like southeast Asia and China of course,” Sawan said.

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