Gastech 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, brought together tens of thousands of energy professionals from more than 150 countries to discuss some of the biggest problems and solutions shaping the industry.
At the event, we spoke to experts from across the industry value chain to get their views on some of the key themes running through this year’s agenda, including geopolitics and energy security, gas’s role as a transition fuel and beyond, unlocking future fuel markets and how AI is transforming offshore operations.
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This episode features insights from Honeywell Technologies’ president of projects & automation solutions, Russ Ford; Wood’s COO for projects, Nick Shorten, and APAC regional president, John Mtanios; Armstrong Fluid Technology Industrial’s global product manager, Divyanshu Shrivastava; Trelleborg Marine & Infrastructure’s gas transfer specialist, Matthew Richardson; and SmartSea’s CEO, Kris Vedat.
Geopolitics and energy security
A central thread at the conference was how geopolitical fragmentation is reshaping energy markets, turning supply volatility into the baseline scenario. Recent global conflicts and the subsequent disruption of energy trade routes have pushed energy security to the top of all governments’ agendas.
As Mtanios puts it, geopolitical pressure has succeeded where policy often struggles: “It has made energy security personal for every country and every company in this region.”
There has been a resulting shift in focus in what type of projects get funded. Mtanios highlights that in Asia-Pacific (APAC), gas is taking on a renewed strategic role, with “capital moving to projects that are bankable, projects that will perform under volatility”.
Gas beyond a transition fuel
While gas is commonly framed as a transition fuel, industry leaders at Gastech argued that it may have a role beyond simply being a bridge. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) market’s growth is proving strong, despite competing, arguably cleaner, forces entering the scene.
“I think gas is with us to stay, full stop… there is going to be a level of dependence on gas for a long, long time,” says Shorten.
The practical needs of industry and transport are pushing the sector to plan for a longer-duration role for gas in the energy mix. In marine fuel, for instance, LNG’s momentum carries an infrastructure advantage: assets built for LNG can potentially support emerging technologies like bio-LNG, giving owners more confidence in long-term returns.
Richardson expects the LNG-fuelled fleet to keep expanding, given this benefit. Compared to other fuels with less robust supply chains and established infrastructure, “there is a lot less risk”.
Who should pay to decarbonise gas?
If hydrocarbons are to remain in the system, the debate shifts to reducing their emissions. However, a key question here is who will foot the bill for this task.
Interviewees repeatedly returned to the idea that putting the financial burden on a single group creates resistance and slows action. At the same time, Shrivastava stresses that “the burden has to be shared as per the wallet shares”.
Vedat echoes this, suggesting that “we all have to proportionally share the cost”. However, he notes that what is most important is that every party takes accountability and works together.
Making gas fit for the future
Calls to decarbonise the gas supply chain will only grow stronger as countries strengthen emission targets. In achieving this, Shrivastava shares that decarbonisation isn’t only about building newer, cleaner technologies but also about retrofits, efficiency upgrades and performance improvements at existing sites, where emissions reductions may be cheaper and faster.
“When we talk about decarbonisation, everyone looks forward to putting something new on the field… I would say 70% of decarbonisation will come from the existing facilities, where… installed equipment is inefficient.”
If the energy system is changing quickly, infrastructure value will also increasingly depend on flexibility – whether today’s gas assets can evolve with new molecules, requirements and regulations. “The major focus has to be… the adaptability of that infrastructure,” Shrivastava says.
Unlocking future fuels: hydrogen, ammonia and more
Hydrogen, ammonia, methanol and other future fuels were repeatedly highlighted throughout Gastech 2026, but speakers were candid about how difficult it remains to turn ambition into bankable and scalable projects. Even with demand signals, many developments still struggle to reach final investment decisions (FIDs).
Cost remains the main hurdle, as Shorten confirms: “It is, in many cases, financial barriers… and ensuring a balanced return on investment… We are involved in lots of [alternative fuel] projects… but they don’t get past an FID, and we find that frustrating.”
In maritime, economics isn’t the only constraint. Technical challenges including skills, port readiness and the physics of fuel transfer can be decisive for ammonia and hydrogen use in shipping, Richardson says.
AI for alternative fuels and offshore operations
AI was the dominant technology topic at the conference, highlighted to optimise systems and bring down costs across every energy technology’s value chain.
The case is no different for AI’s potential to help strengthen the investment case for future fuels. Ford says many alternative fuel projects fail the “economics test” and that AI’s value is in allowing developers to tackle that early on: “How do I minimise my levelized cost of hydrogen? How do I look at the cost of carbon per tonne captured? How is the system running, and how can I make reductions?”
Meanwhile, experts said that AI is especially valuable in offshore operations because of the remoteness, constrained labour and complex logistics of the environment. Here, AI already has proven value to “make operations run a lot more efficiently… bring more data together to make kind of more integrated decisions across an entire value chain,” Ford says.
Vedat adds that AI can help process the uniquely non-linear and variable logistics of offshore operations and has already demonstrated its ability to optimise cargo distribution and routing.
What the AI future needs
Even with proven use cases, experts argue that adoption still hits the same wall: organisations struggle to tie AI to measurable outcomes, and data remains fragmented across systems and stakeholders.
Ford frames the biggest bottleneck as misalignment on value: “A lot of companies are not focused on business outcomes for customers,” and urges a return to basics – where return on investment comes from – whether through “predictive maintenance”, “upskilling of operator” or “identifying opportunities to use less energy”.
Vedat’s answer is more foundational: “The orchestration and collaboration of the data,” because too much information “still sits in silos… within organisations… [and] within the partners of that whole supply chain”. Without standardisation and integration, he argues, AI deployment becomes “far harder than it needs to be”.
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