Global natural gas consumption is expected to continue increasing through the decade but, as the war in Ukraine continues to impact mature gas markets, International Energy Agency (IEA) researchers see a shift in the demand outlook.

In the IEA’s latest Medium-Term Gas Report, researchers said volatility sparked at the beginning of war last year has helped solidify and, in some cases, speed up curtailment in natural gas demand. Higher global gas prices also could have reduced competitiveness and “damaged the image” of natural gas as a cheap and reliable fuel to emerging markets like South Asia, according to the report.

“In Europe, the gas crisis reinforced the structural drivers accelerating the decline in gas demand over the medium term,” researchers said. “An...