IEA: Global oil and gas demand could continue to increase until 2050.

The International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that global oil and gas demand may continue to grow until 2050. This forecast deviates from the agency's previous expectations of a rapid transition to clean energy and suggests that the world may not be able to achieve climate goals. In its annual World Energy Outlook report released on Wednesday, the IEA predicts that oil demand will reach 113 million barrels per day by the mid-century, an increase of about 13% from 2024 consumption levels based on current national policy scenarios. The agency expects global energy demand to increase by 90 exajoules by 2035, a 15% increase from current levels. The report notes a surge in final investment decisions for new liquefied natural gas projects by 2025. By 2030, newly built LNG export facilities with an annual capacity of around 300 billion cubic meters will be operational, signaling a 50% increase in available supply. In the current policy scenario, driven by the growth in demand for electricity from data centers and artificial intelligence development, the global LNG market size will expand from about 560 billion cubic meters in 2024 to 880 billion cubic meters in 2035, reaching 1.02 trillion cubic meters by 2050.