道达尔能源公司负责亚洲勘探与生产业务的副总裁托马斯·莫里斯在一次行业活动上表示，中国和欧洲将引领今年液化天然气需求的增长。莫里斯提到：“随着中国重返市场，今年全球液化天然气需求继续增长，但尚未达到2021年时的水平。欧洲市场需求还会继续增长。与此同时，新的产能在短期内不会投入使用，因此将继续对价格和波动性产生一些压力。”

市场人士表示，欧洲市场需求增长的预测可能没有中国市场那么确定，因为欧盟委员会最近声明其目标是密切关注天然气消费，并尽可能将其控制在低水平。由于欧盟希望继续稳定其能源和天然气供应，欧盟委员会提议欧盟成员国继续采取自愿措施，将天然气需求总体减少15%。

尽管如此，道达尔能源公司已经不是第一家看好天然气的能源巨头。另一家超级巨头壳牌今年2月表示，预计2040年前，全球液化天然气需求将大幅增加50%。壳牌表示，随着亚洲新兴经济体从煤炭转向天然气，液化天然气需求增长将由中国及整个亚洲引领。

Thomas Morris, vice president of exploration and production for Asia at Total Energy, said at an industry event that China and Europe will lead the growth in LNG demand this year. "Global LNG demand has continued to grow this year as China returns to the market, but has not yet reached 2021 levels," Morris said. Demand in Europe will continue to grow. At the same time, new capacity will not come online in the near term, so it will continue to put some pressure on prices and volatility."

Market participants said that the forecast of demand growth in the European market may be less certain than in the Chinese market, as the European Commission recently stated that its goal is to keep a close eye on gas consumption and keep it as low as possible. As the EU wants to continue to stabilize its energy and gas supplies, the European Commission is proposing that EU member States continue to take voluntary measures to reduce gas demand overall by 15 percent.

Still, Total Energy is not the first energy giant to be bullish on natural gas. Another supermajor, Shell, said in February that it expected global LNG demand to increase by a whopping 50 percent by 2040. Shell said LNG demand growth would be led by China and Asia as a whole, as emerging Asian economies switched from coal to gas.