In 2020, global demand for natural gas shrank by 1.2%, falling to 3 970 Bcm, below the the 4 Tcm floor reached in 2019.

At the OECD level, natural gas demand in 2020 contracted by 27.4 Bcm, or by -1.5%.  Here again, OECD Americas and OECD Europe were the main two contributors to the decline, driven by the United States (-21.2 Bcm, -2.4% y-o-y) and the United Kingdom (-6.5 Bcm, -8.2% y-o-y) coupled with Spain (-3.5 Bcm, -9.9% y-o-y) and France (-3.3 Bcm, -7.7% y-o-y).

Non-OECD countries experienced a comparable decrease in 2020, with a contraction of 22.6 Bcm (-1.0% y-o-y), led by Non-OECD Europe and Eurasia with preliminary information for the Russian Federation pointing to a fall in demand of 21.9 Bcm (-4.3% y-o-y).