Asia summer 2026 LNG & coal outlook: Weather, geopolitics & fuel switching dynamics

Firat joined Kpler’s insight team in 2024 as a Senior Dry Bulk analyst and has over seven years of experience covering the seaborne thermal coal market. Firat spent the early years of his career in banking, working in various roles in corporate banking and structured finance divisions. Firat’s focus is modeling the global supply demand balance for the seaborne coal market and offering in-depth research analysis to bring transparency to dry bulk markets.

Go Katayama is a Principal Insights Analyst - LNG & Natural Gas at Kpler based in Tokyo with over a decade of experience in analyzing global LNG markets for various clients and internal stakeholders. He leads Kpler Insights fundamental analysis on Asian demand. Prior to joining Kpler, he was Senior LNG analyst and Japan power regulation Advisor at Shell and global LNG consultant at Poten & Partners. He holds a masters degree in Global Energy Policy from New York University.

Nelson joined Kpler in October 2024 to cover Asian gas & LNG markets. He focuses on market analysis and Supply & Demand forecasting in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China. Also, he collaborates with his team on coverage on European, South Asian, and Southeast Asian markets. Before Kpler, Nelson spent 3+ years as an Associate in Goldman Sachs (Singapore) in commodity MO functions, also working on power & commodity data. He also spent less than a year as a Research Associate in Aurora Energy Research in Singapore, where he specialised in power & renewables market forecasting in Southeast Asian and South Korean market. Nelson holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science and a Master of Science in Technology Management from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). He has lived, studied and worked in China, Singapore, and the US. He is currently a CFA charterholder.