LNG

Australian LNG exporters be required to reserve 20% of their gas production for the east coast domestic market under a new policy, effective July 1, 2027. The measure targets three LNG projects – Shell/Arrow Energy's Queensland Curtis LNG, Santos’ Gladstone LNG, and Origin/ConocoPhillips' Australia Pacific LNG.

A review of the EU’s Arctic policy running through March 16, 2026, places fresh emphasis on gas from Norway’s Barents Sea which could lower Europe’s reliance on LNG imports. The resource base is substantial: The parts of the Barents Sea already open to exploration, according to Norwegian Offshore Directorate estimates, hold around 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of natural gas, or about 22 trillion cubic feet.

Global climate finance commitments remain stuck at $100 billion annually – far below the $300 billion target. The widening finance gap and slow coordination on carbon policy translate into a growing role of LNG in Asia’s energy mix, particularly in emerging markets.

As global oil demand levels off, a “wave of new LNG exports” is putting downward pressure on prices and extends natural gas demand growth into the 2030s, the International Energy Agency's (IEA) 2025 World Energy Outlook finds.

CPC Corp, Taiwan’s state-owned energy company, is preparing to ramp up LNG procurement through a new regas terminal in the Guantang Industrial Area. By importing more natural gas, utilities comply with the government’s policy to exit nuclear power by the end of this year.

The Guantang terminal, situated in the north of the island, will give CPC an additional option for importing LNG apart from its Taichung LNG terminal which is also being expanded.

The Taiwanese government wants to replace nuclear power with natural gas and renewables. To that end, the ratio of electricity generated from natural gas is meant to rise to 50%, the ministry of economic affairs said, specifying the mid-2025 as the deadline for the completion of the country’s nuclear exit.

Taipower seeks to adhere to the government’s Nuclear Free Homeland Policy and state-owned CPC Corp consequentially increased LNG imports since early summer last year, and recently got approval to build a new regas terminal at Kaohsiung. Unit 1 of Taipower’s last fully functional nuclear power plant was shuttered on July 27 2024, and the utility currently prepares to decommission Unit 2 in late August or September 2025. This will complete Taiwan’s nuclear exit.

Repowering Talin plant to replace lost nuclear capacity

By that time, however, the country will need to import substantially more LNG as gas-fuelled power station will need to be dispatched for mid-merit or even partly as a baseload power source. Repowering the Talin coal-fired power units to cleaner-burning natural gas is under consideration. Not only would this boost demand for LNG, combusting gas instead of thermal coal would also produce around 95,000 tonnes less sulphur oxide, 50,000 tonnes less nitrogen oxide, and 6.26 million tonnes less carbon dioxide annually.

CPC confirmed it will supply regasified LNG to the repowered Talin power plant at Kaohsiung Port. But the company was quick to add it would also supply gas to power industries, homes, other end-users, and source gas for storage to meet seasonal demand swings.

Plans to increase Taiwan's natural gas reserves from the current 7-day storage level to 14, have already been announced by the country’s Ministry of Economics in October last year. Greater gas storage requirements further add to rising demand for imported LNG. All these factors make the state gas buyer CPC Corp keep a vigilant eye on offerings from long-term LNG deliveries as well as on the spot market.

Michael Lewis, CEO of Germany’s largest gas importer Uniper, welcomes plans by U.S. President Trump to expand oil & gas production as well as LNG exports. He urged German industry to use more ‘blue hydrogen,’ made via steam methane reforming, into their energy transitions plans, rather than focussing solely on ‘green hydrogen,' derived from renewable energy.