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According to Sinochem New Network, on February 2, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Al-Kabbi warned that despite global plans to add more than 100 million tons of annual LNG production capacity starting in 2030, the surge in electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence could deplete the world’s excess LNG capacity around that time, leading to a power shortage in the market. Kabi said that governments and technology companies are increasing investment in large-scale computing infrastructure, driving AI data centers to become an important source of demand for natural gas. Such data centers require continuous power supply, and in areas where renewable energy sources cannot yet provide a stable power supply, reliance on natural gas-powered generation increases as a result. Natural gas power generation is a quick way to meet large-scale and reliable electricity demands. Against the backdrop of various countries competing to establish data centers and AI infrastructure, the LNG market, whose demand was expected to peak by 2030, may see its demand rise again. Kabi emphasized that the risk of shortages will not arise immediately, but will be concentrated in the second half of this decade. If AI demand grows while the implementation of new LNG projects is delayed or geopolitical factors cause disruptions to supply, global LNG spare capacity will shrink rapidly, and the market may tighten sooner than expected. Kabi pointed out that the electricity demand associated with AI has created a new dimension of consumption that was not adequately taken into account in previous predictions. Kabi said that Qatar is currently working on expanding the LNG project at its northern gas fields, with plans to raise the country’s annual LNG production capacity from 77 million tons to 126 million tons by the early 2030s. This plan was originally designed to meet the steadily growing demand in Asia and Europe, without taking into account the surge in electricity consumption brought about by AI.