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Sinochem New Network reports that recently, the head of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum stated that geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East are causing a structural decline in global demand for natural gas. As this conflict continues to escalate, it severely disrupts the global natural gas trade landscape, with the LNG market facing a risk of supply-demand imbalance for an extended period. Due to restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on energy facilities in the Persian Gulf, the order of natural gas exports from the Middle East has been completely disrupted. Relevant officials said that even if the conflict ends quickly, it will still take months to restore regional natural gas exports ； If the conflict remains stalled for a long time, short-term supply shortages will evolve into permanent market changes that will radically alter the global structure of natural gas consumption. As the world’s core consumer market for LNG, Asia is experiencing a particularly severe decline in demand. Data from shipping data analysis firms shows that Asia’s LNG imports in April are expected to total just 19.03 million tons, marking the lowest monthly import level in nearly six years. The structure on the supply side is being restructured simultaneously. Following the restrictions on Qatar’s LNG exports, global buyers have turned to U.S. LNG, while making small purchases of Russian natural gas. Gas-producing countries in Africa and North Africa, which have excess production capacity, have failed to effectively fill the supply gap; the natural gas pipelines from Algeria and Libya to Europe are not operating at full capacity, and LNG production capacity in many African countries remains underutilized, preventing the rapid realization of their resource potential. Some North African countries **have accelerated their plans to boost LNG production. Algeria is stepping up its energy development efforts through tenders for oil and gas blocks, with a target of producing 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually by 2030.** ； Nigeria’s exports of LNG to Asia have been on the rise, and it plans to increase its annual LNG production capacity from 22 million tons to 30 million tons. However, such capacity expansions are part of long-term plans and are unable to alleviate the current short-term supply shortage.