The loss of the U.A.E. and Egypt as Qatar's LNG customers will not pose a problem because Qatar can easily find replacement markets, according to a new Oxford Institute for Energy Studies report published Tuesday.
Qatar, which is the world's largest LNG exporter, had a market share of 30.4 percent of global LNG as of 2016
Oxford said that this would decline to 21 percent over the next five years.
The report said that the potential loss of 7.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year of Qatari LNG exports to the U.A.E. and Egypt is of no concern.
"Both these importers participate in the LNG spot and short-term market and could quickly find alternative suppliers; Qatar would quickly find other markets," the report read.
However, it stressed that the loss of LNG supplies through the Dolphin pipeline of 17.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year would be more serious.
According to the report, the U.A.E. and Oman could cope by decreasing LNG exports and using the under-utilized U.A.E.'s LNG import capacity to meet their domestic market requirements, however, this would also reduce LNG supplies to other world importers by 17.7 bcm.
"This is less serious against a background of rapidly growing global LNG supply as new projects from the U.S., Australia and Russia come on stream in 2017 in which an additional 30+ bcm is expected. Any short-term impact would be met by increased flows of Russian pipeline gas to Europe," it said.
(Anadolu Agency)
