Dramatic decline in global gas consumption in 2022

The International Gas News Corporation "Sodigaz" published its latest data, in which it revealed a decrease in global gas consumption by 1.6% in 2022 after the outbreak of the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine, which led to the interruption of gas supplies coming from Moscow to Europe, stressing that global consumption of fossil gas fell to 4,000 billion cubic meters "within the framework of an unprecedented energy crisis and high inflation."

The organization said in a phone call with AFP that this decline can be considered historic after a record increase of 4.5 percent in 2021 and a decrease of 2 percent in 2020, which saw the spread of the new Coronavirus, and the 40-country organization considered that 2022 will remain the year of "the worst natural gas and energy crisis in history due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

"The year 2022 witnessed in particular the largest decline in gas consumption in the European Union in history, reaching 13 percent to 353 billion cubic meters," and a significant decrease was recorded in the CIS countries and Ukraine by 4.6 percent, as well as in Asia and Oceania by 1.6 percent, in contrast to the increase in consumption in North America and the Middle East.

The reasons for the decline included a mild winter that led to a decline in "domestic and commercial gas demand" in the northern hemisphere, a slowdown in China's economy and higher gas prices, which reduced demand in industry and led to a movement to save energy.

While Russian gas was playing a "dominant role" in European supplies, pipeline exports to Europe "fell to the lowest level since the mid-eighties, resulting in a loss of 77 billion cubic meters, equivalent to 20 percent of EU gas consumption in 2021."

Global gas production remained stable. The organization said that "the sharp loss in Russian gas sales was offset by strong production growth" in the Middle East +14 billion cubic meters, especially in the United States +41 billion cubic meters, and the United States' share in global gas production rose from 24% to 25% between 2021 and 2022, and Russia's share fell from 18% to 15.5%, and the net international flow of liquefied natural gas exceeded the volume of volumes through pipelines for the first time in 2022 with the share of liquefied natural gas increasing to 51%. Instead of 46% in 2021.

But the "apparent recovery in LNG trade" did not allow "to offset a historic and huge contraction of -12.7% in pipeline trade, and in total, international gas trade fell by 4.7% to 1,016 billion cubic meters.

Global demand for natural gas is expected to return to growth in 2023, after contracting during 2022, with the repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the annual report issued by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum showed that the world's consumption of natural gas may rise 1% year-on-year in 2023, led by the United States and China.