Gas could be a bridge to nowhere on the energy road map

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Gas could be a bridge to nowhere on the energy road map Advertisement

The conventional wisdom says liquefied natural gas is the future of energy — bridging the gap between the world abandoning fossil fuels and renewable supplies coming online. But that rosy outlook faces a reckoning. LNG is threatened by a pincer movement involving, ironically, the two old and new sources it’s supposed to bridge: coal and solar.

The cracks in the bridge could not have appeared at a worse time. The LNG market is about to witness its third big wave of increased supply in 20 years. If demand growth is weaker than expected, the only way the market would rebalance is via much lower prices.

The beauty of LNG is that once it’s been super-cooled to about minus 160 degrees, it t