Industry Trends: Five trends shaping the North American gas market to 2030

The shale revolution has changed the game for the North American natural gas market over the past decade. In 2008, North America was believed to be short of natural gas resources and in need of LNG imports. Now, 10 yr later, the region has transitioned to a gas exporter with LNG import terminals converting to exports, and new pipelines shipping gas to Mexico. This change was enabled by the meteoric rise of shale, accounting for more than 50% of total gas production. Looking ahead to 2030, we expect North American gas demand to grow at 2%/yr, fueled by the attractiveness of US LNG exports and the retirement of coal power plants. On the supply side, we expect shale gas to continue dominating,