Research Overview

For the first half of the 2010s, natural gas was widely considered the fuel of the future, and the 2020s on would see the “Golden Age of Gas,” to quote the International Energy Agency (IEA). However, the prospects for natural gas have become much more uncertain for the second half of this decade, with some sceptics promoting the idea that gas does not have a long-term future as a source of power generation.

Moreover, concerns about climate change have increased pressure on reducing reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal and oil, but also gas. At the same time, global power demand has recovered strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in high commodity prices and subsequent inflation. Extracting and burning natural gas produces substantial emissions, but this volume remains significantly lower than that of burning coal. Renewables are certainly going to dominate global investment, but legitimate concerns exist about whether they can really meet the increase in demand that will come from population and economic growth in the developing world and from the increases in demand that will come from the electrification of industry, infrastructure, and mobility during the next two decades.

The reality is that natural gas still has a significant role to play in the world, and this report seeks to shed light on some of the key trends and likely developments within the global gas market during the course of the decade (2020–2030). These advances include the potential role of hydrogen; the need for flexibility in assets; the role of liquefied natural gas (LNG); the potential for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); and the adoption of advanced service offerings for an aging base. From a technology perspective, equipment revenues and capacity forecasts for both turbines and generator sets (gensets) are included. The core regions analyzed are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC [excluding China and India]), China, India, Africa, and the Middle East.