As the world continues to shift focus towards sustainability, finding alternatives to traditional fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel is becoming a high priority. Natural gases, such as LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG), could be a huge solution for many regions.
In fact, the EU has even outlined the importance of LNG in their energy transition plans, and the CNG natural gas market has grown to US$189.3 billion in 2024, showing just how crucial they will be moving forward.
This raises the question of where this alternative fuel is being produced and who has already begun adopting and consuming it. When it comes to export, the US wears the crown for export capacity, followed by Australia, Qatar, Russia, and Algeria in the top five, while Japan leads in the largest tank capacity of LNG, with China and South Korea in second and third, respectively.
Lise-Lotte Nordholm, VP & GM Clean Energy and Global Platforms at Dover Fueling Solutions® (DFS), has offered expert insight into LNG and CNG road transportation around the globe, including the major players and what can be expected in the industry moving forward.
The main difference between CNG and LNG is that gas has different energy densities in different states of matter. To produce LNG, the natural gas is frozen into a liquid, while CNG is created through intense pressure. As a liquid, natural gas occupies up to 600 times less space, making it much easier to ship, store, and dispense.
This is why natural gas is a great sustainable choice for the transport sector. It offers an energy density comparable to diesel, natural abundance, and CNG reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 90 – 97%. CNG is also easier to refuel by being storable and dispensable from a hose to fuel retail and heavy goods vehicles, thanks to hydraulic innovation.
So, which nation produces the most natural gas? Qatar is the answer, producing the most natural gas in EMEA. However, despite being the largest producer, Germany is the home to the most refuelling stations, with 186 as of March 2024, according to research by NGVA Europe. This is consistent with how trends are developing in natural gas refuelling, as data has shown that it is heavily concentrated in Western Europe and Asia, making those continents the largest consumers.
This trend is likely to continue, with the number of CNG refuelling stations having grown at a rate of 8.1% since 2020. Especially with the likelihood of more governments around the world pushing for more sustainable fuelling solutions, more refuelling stations will be required to meet supply and demand.
Despite Qatar leading the production market, there has been a huge spike in natural gas production in Australia, occurring both onshore and offshore, before being imported to EMEA. Each year, the country exports around 80 million t of LNG to Europe due to geopolitical concerns and tension in Ukraine.
Australia has seen heavy investment in its natural gas production resources, with more than AUS$300 billion being spent on LNG over the past 15 years, resulting in it sitting atop the global pile. However, while Australia’s production continues to rise, its usage of CNG still has room for growth. Across the country, there are only 36 CNG refuelling facilities, which are mostly owned by private companies.
The future of natural gas refuelling looks incredibly promising, as there is investment planned for expanding infrastructure, increasing station availability, and promoting the adoption of natural gas vehicles globally. CNG is a fuelling solution that has significant room for growth, and despite being 30% more efficient as a fuel with the potential for use in fleet vehicles, there are very few refuelling stations across EMEA at present. This means that with more adoption globally, there is potential for even more stations and growth within the market.
Continuing trends in supply capacity, global LNG will see a surge later in the decade, forecast to reach as much as 646 million t by 2030. Plus, with global liquefaction capacity growing by 4.3% in 2022, this will likely continue to increase as adoption and consumption become more common. The global LNG trade has connected 20 exporting markets with 48 importing infrastructures as of April 2023, all thanks to an increasingly globalised LNG market, making it possible to re-route massive volumes of energy in a matter of months.
The future of more sustainable alternatives to traditional fuels, LNG and CNG are poised to offer the market, at the very least, a transitional option to help drive towards a more sustainable future. While Australia is seeing a significant boom in the production and export of natural gases, there will likely be more universal adoption as time goes on.