The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) welcomes the release of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2025 (WEO-2025), which places renewed emphasis on energy security, affordability and flexibility in an increasingly complex global energy landscape. The GECF notes with appreciation that the publication reaffirms the enduring role of natural gas, not only as a reliable and affordable source of energy, but also as a critical enabler of industrialisation, economic development, social progress, environmental protection and food security across all regions.
The long-term projections for global natural gas demand presented in WEO-2025 are broadly aligned with the #GECF Global Gas Outlook #GGO, converging around a shared understanding that natural gas will remain an indispensable pillar of the global energy system for decades to come. These findings reinforce the GECF long-held view that the “golden age of natural gas lies ahead, not behind.”
H.E. Eng. Mohamed Hamel, Secretary General of the GECF, stated: “We welcome the new edition of the WEO, which brings back enhanced realism and constructive pragmatism into the global energy dialogue. It is increasingly clear that natural gas will remain essential to achieving a secure, affordable, and sustainable energy future.”
WEO-2025 highlights that future power systems will be increasingly shaped by electrification, digitalisation, and the growing integration of variable renewables. These trends heighten the need for flexible, dispatchable, low-emission, and secure sources of energy. In this context, natural gas remains indispensable for grid stability, coal-to-gas switching, reliable baseload power, and expanding energy access, particularly in developing countries.
The GECF also welcomes the WEO’s recognition of natural gas as vital for clean cooking, fertiliser production, cooling and heating, and the provision of reliable and affordable electricity, which are essential for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a time when progress is facing unprecedented challenges.
WEO-2025 points to a historic wave of LNG capacity additions by 2030, enhancing market liquidity and supply diversification. In line with these findings, GECF underscores the need for sustained, predictable investment across the entire natural gas value chain to meet rising demand, offset field natural declines, and preserve long-term supply security.
Consistent with the WEO-2025 findings, the GECF underscores that natural gas:
• Enables low-carbon industrialisation, supporting coal-to-gas switching, blue hydrogen production, and the deployment of CCUS technologies.
• Partners renewables by providing firm and flexible generation capacity that is essential for integrating variable power sources. The production of critical minerals and metals needed for renewable technologies also depends heavily on natural gas for extraction, refining, and smelting.
• Supports new sources of electricity demand, including that of digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence systems, which require reliable and scalable power sources.
• Accelerates sustainable development, by expanding access to modern energy, enabling clean cooking, improving air quality, and enhancing food security through fertiliser production.
GECF is proud that its Member Countries contribute to satisfying global energy demand and providing reliable energy for all.