Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) continued their downward spiral this week, falling to a four-month low as demand from top buyers Japan and China failed to materialise amid ample inventory.<\/p>\n
Spot prices for January delivery in North Asia were estimated at about $9.80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down 20 cents from the previous week, while spot prices for cargoes delivered in February were estimated at about $9.70 to 9.80 per mmBtu, according to trade sources.<\/p>\n
The market structure has flipped into a backward dated one, where prices for cargoes loading in the current month are higher than those loading in the forward months, making storage of the super-chilled fuel uneconomical.<\/p>\n
Several of the tankers storing LNG off Singapore and Malaysia waters recently appear to be on the move, likely prompted by the change in market structure, traders said.<\/p>\n
Demand from China, the world’s second-largest LNG importer, appears to be tepid with top supplier China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) offering to sell cargoes for January, traders added.<\/p>\n
“The three oil majors’ storage tanks are very full and so far, north China is not cold,” a China-based LNG trader said referring to natural gas storage tanks of CNOOC, Sinopec and CNPC.<\/p>\n
Industrial gas demand in North China is showing signs of a sharp slowdown as small manufacturers shut their doors or buy less gas, unable to cope with a drop-off in export orders and costs related to Beijing’s pollution control and reform measures, Reuters reported earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Natural gas inventory levels in Japan and South Korea are still high, trade sources said.<\/p>\n
“There is lots of LNG in Europe too. I expect prices to fall further,” an European trader said.<\/p>\n
“China and South Korea have taken more cargoes than they expected they would need. Singapore stocks are also full.”<\/p>\n
TENDERS AND DEALS<\/p>\n
Indian Oil Corp likely bought two LNG cargoes on a delivered ex-ship basis into Gujarat between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14, and from Jan. 21 to Jan. 28 from trader Glencore at close to $9 per mmBtu, traders said, though the deal could not immediately be confirmed.<\/p>\n
Gail India is proposing to swap three LNG cargoes across the first quarter of next year, trade sources said. Gail is offering a cargo a month from Cove Point for loading in the first quarter of next year in exchange for corresponding deliveries to India, one of the traders said.<\/p>\n
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), Angola LNG and Nigeria LNG offered cargoes this week, adding to the glut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) continued their downward spiral this week, falling to a four-month low as demand from top buyers Japan and China failed to materialise amid ample inventory. Spot prices for January delivery in North Asia were estimated at about $9.80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down 20 cents from the previous week, while spot prices for cargoes delivered in February were estimated at about $9.70 to 9.80 per mmBtu, according to trade sources. The market structure has flipped into a backward dated one, where prices for cargoes loading in the current month are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oil-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}