- Publisher
- Clean, Affordable and Secure Energy for Southeast Asia (CASE)
- Authors
- Tisha-Nok Krecke (Agora Energiewende)
- Publication date
-
12 December 2025
- Suggested citation
- Agora Energiewende (2025): Rethinking LNG: Safeguarding Thailand’s Energy Security Amid Heightened Risks. Clean, Affordable and Secure Energy in Southeast Asia project.
- Project
- Produced within the framework of Clean, Affordable, and Secure Energy System in Southeast Asia (CASE)
Rethinking liquified natural gas (LNG): Safeguarding Thailand’s energy security amid heightened risks
Objective of the policy brief
Thailand’s growing reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports has become a defining and increasingly concerning feature of its energy trajectory, driven by compounding supply- and demand-side dynamics. Rising LNG demand, expanding LNG infrastructure and deeper integration with volatile global LNG markets are exerting increasing pressure on Thailand’s energy security, economic resilience and decarbonisation objectives.
This policy brief argues for structurally reducing LNG reliance and repositioning gas as a flexible, residual fuel within a diversified, renewables-based electricity system. Its core objective is to offer a coherent set of policy recommendations to help Thailand redefine the role of LNG, and gas more broadly, within the country's energy landscape and advance a more secure transition pathway.
To guide evidence-based policymaking, the brief introduces a three-pillar LNG realignment framework:
- Reducing LNG demand through system wide transformation, including accelerated renewable energy deployment, grid modernisation, efficiency improvements, and a managed gas transition,
- Mitigating international LNG market risks and cost exposure through more resilient, diversified procurement strategies and stronger consumer safeguards, and
- Aligning Thailand’s domestic LNG value chain and infrastructure planning with a transitioning energy system to prevent overcapacity and stranded assets.
These measures provide policymakers with a practical pathway to enable a timely, well-managed shift towards cleaner and more reliable energy sources, while strengthening Thailand’s energy security, fiscal stability and long-term resilience.
