LNG’s increasing flexibilities are facilitated by increasingly transparent market-based pricing, soaring derivatives trade and new Asian hubs emerging. Last month, Cheniere successfully sanctioned its latest supply project by offering market-friendly flexibilities and cost competitiveness, additional drivers underpinning LNG’s commoditization.
Posts tagged ‘natgas’
March 9, 2018 14:30 UTC ![]() Relations between Russia and Ukraine in the gas sector have been infamously strained for more than a decade, with the memory of the cut in supplies to Europe in both 2006 and 2009 still fresh in people’s minds. There was a brief period of relative stability in the past two years while the Stockholm arbitration court considered its verdict in the dispute over the 2009 Gazprom/Naftogaz supply and transit deal. But the dispute erupted again last week after the court ruled in Naftogaz’s favor on the transit element of the case, awarding Naftogaz $4.6 billion in compensation for Gazprom’s underuse of its transit network. |
March 6, 2018 04:01 UTC ![]() Getting inside President Donald Trump’s head was an early theme Monday at CERAWeek by IHS Markit. Speakers were asked on the first day of the annual oil and gas confab to figure out what the US president will do next and how it will impact global energy markets. |
February 1, 2018 12:00 UTC ![]() The commoditization of the global LNG market has had implications across several associated industries, ranging from the gas-fired power sector to seaborne gas transportation. Hence, it came as no surprise that the venerable Baltic Exchange, probably the world’s oldest source of shipping information, set out to build an LNG freight index in January that could be launched as early as spring 2018. |
January 31, 2018 12:00 UTC ![]() Platts JKM, the benchmark LNG spot price, has revealed three important surprises over the past three years. In 2015, most analysts expected the LNG market to weaken considerably, increasingly de-correlate from oil and reduce seasonality. Three years of JKM analysis counters all three expectations — as well as re-emphasizing the importance of market-based LNG pricing, and derivatives — in helping market participants flexibly react to unforeseen developments. |
November 17, 2017 05:01 UTC ![]() November is upon us and temperatures across the US are beginning to fall as oil prices rise to year-to-date highs. Looking at the average 12-month forward curve for WTI, oil prices rose to $54.19/b in early November, an increase of $2.62/b month over month. |
November 1, 2017 05:01 UTC ![]() The European Commission, watchdog of the EU treaties, is throwing everything it has at Russia’s planned 55 Bcm/year Nord Stream 2 pipeline across the Baltic Sea to Germany in its efforts to keep Russian natural gas transit flows to the EU through Ukraine a viable option. |
October 12, 2017 05:01 UTC ![]() Global LNG supply is set to race ahead of demand, but floating LNG projects are forging ahead, and they are doing so in Africa, backed in part by China. The continent’s first FLNG vessel has been completed and is due to reach Cameroonian waters in November. |
September 20, 2017 05:01 UTC ![]() Despite devastating weather that sent energy market participants into a frenzy, the average of the 12-month forward curve for WTI remained flat month on month at $50.43/b. However, internal rates of return (IRR) increased across the board due in large part to higher natural gas liquids (NGLs) prices. |
June 30, 2017 16:59 UTC ![]() Over lunch at a recent energy conference, a fellow attendee asked where I worked and what I did, and I explained that I lead coverage of the US thermal coal market for S&P Global Platts. The gentleman, who worked for a group that finances renewable energy projects, had several questions about coal, and each answer seemed to only increase his incredulity. “So, let me understand,” said the gentleman finally. “You are bullish on coal?” |