Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas trader, expects buying and selling of the fastest-growing fuel to recover to levels seen before the pandemic.

Global LNG demand took a severe hit when nations imposed lockdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus, impacting the fuel’s use in everything from power plants to transport and factories. That came on top of the biggest glut of the fuel the world has ever seen, helped by two mild winters in a row.

“We still very much believe that with the current supply-demand outlook, this is a fundamentally strong sector that will grow at a rate that is close to 4% per year, Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.

His comments show that Shell is sticking to the optimism showed in its annual LNG Outlook in February, before the Covid-19 pandemic started to ravage markets on a global scale.

In its outlook, Shell said it expects annual LNG demand to double to 700 million tons by 2040. Consumption increased by a record 13% to 359 million tons in 2019.

But even the global leader will feel some pain in the short term. Shell warned in April that its gas liquefaction volumes may fall in the second quarter.

Last updated on Wed., June 10, 2020.