Exxon Boosts 2030 LNG Sales Forecast on Strong Demand Growth

Exxon Mobil Corp. has raised its liquefied natural gas sales forecast, betting on robust long-term demand in Asia and beyond even as the Middle East war prompts some nations to rethink their reliance on the fuel.

The company expects its annual LNG sales to reach 50 million tons by 2030 and to keep rising beyond the current decade in line with market growth, Peter Clarke, senior vice president for LNG at ExxonMobil International Ltd., said in an interview on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Bangkok.

The revised target — up from an earlier forecast of 40 million tons a year by 2030 — comes even as the US-Iran war constrains LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the roughly one-fifth of global supply that originated within the Persian Gulf before the conflict began. As a result of the shortages, gas prices have risen to the highest in years.

That has prompted importers to accelerate the search for alternative supplies, including fast-tracking plans for nuclear power and renewable energy or – in some cases – shifting back to coal.

Still, Exxon remains bullish about demand growth in the coming decades, citing Asia as a key market for LNG. Clarke said he expected global LNG demand to grow from over 400 million tons today to around 500 million tons by 2030, before doubling by 2050.

“Seventy percent of the world’s LNG demand by 2050 will be in Asia, so we’re investing for that,” he said.

The company’s Golden Pass LNG joint venture with QatarEnergy near the Texas-Louisiana border is expected to reach full production toward the end of 2027, Clarke added. The project is expected to export about 18 million tons of LNG per year.