Europe’s pivot away from Russian gas to LNG saw the continent’s LNG imports surge by 60% last year according to the Shell LNG Outlook 2023. With Europe boosting imports by 45mn tons in 2022, prices went through the roof and developing economies suffered. New importers such as Pakistan and Bangladesh began to find themselves priced out of the market.

This development has dealt a major blow to efforts to reduce global coal consumption. Pakistan’s energy minister this week told Reuters that the country aims to quadruple its domestic coal-fired capacity and will not be building new gas-fired plants in the coming years. Data intelligence firm Kpler shows Pakistan LNG imports falling by 1.3mn tons last year, and Bangladesh volumes down 650,000 tons. (CONTINUED - 121 WORDS)