Blog - Page 35

International Gas Prices – May 11 , 2016

Posted in International Gas Prices, Natural Gas Market, Natural Gas Prices on

NBP: influenced by the LNG and oil markets

NBP and coal price GraphIn April, the NBP saw fairly marked fluctuations, ranging from +18% to -10% compared to the monthly average. In a temporary surge, it exceeded €15/MWh ($5/MBtu) on April 26 and 27. A situation of momentarily sustained demand coincided with deficiencies of supply, resulting in heavy recourse to storage. However, monthly averages have been more stable since February, between €12.7-13/MWh ($4.2-4.3/MBtu). The price for early May and the forward quotations for the summer months (until September) stand at about the same levels. Obviously, lower prices cannot be excluded, in light of the market equilibrium conditions. On April 11, the price fell to €11.5/MWh ($3.9/MBtu), its lowest level in recent months, in step with the conditions prevailing on the LNG market in Europe at that time.

2015: A Third Year of Moderate Growth in Gas Demand

Posted in Analysis, Natural Gas Market, Natural Gas Statistics, Press release on

Natural gas demand grew by 1.6% in 2015 according to Cedigaz after having stagnated in 2014. However, this apparent, if modest, resumption of global gas market growth can be misleading as the higher growth rate is essentially the result of a weather driven recovery in the EU where demand rebounded by 4.5% after having dropped by 11% in 2014. For the rest of the world gas demand growth was actually lower than in 2014 (1.2% vs. 2%) and was pulled by a limited number of countries led by the US. The inability of natural gas demand to keep pace with an accelerated supply growth, led to an imbalance in the global gas market and to a price weakness which is expected to continue in the short and medium-term, amid a sluggish economic environment.

The year 2015 saw considerable changes in macroeconomic and price factors. Economic growth stood at 3.1%, lower than at any time since 2012 (3.3/3.4%) and also lower than the 10‐year trend (3.8%). This was the result of the relatively modest growth of the emerging countries (4% compared with 6% over ten years), although western countries’ growth rate exceeded the 10‐year average (1.9% compared to 1.5%).  International crude oil prices fluctuated to new lows, with Brent averaging 52/bl, down by 47% from the previous year.

TOUGH TIMES FOR FLNG PROJECTS Q2 2016 UPDATE OF CEDIGAZ’LNG DATABASE

Posted in LNG Markets, LNG Service, LNG Terminals on

Cedigaz is pleased to announce the release of the latest update of its LNG databases on Liquefaction plants, Regasification terminals and Long-term contracts have been updated. You will find below a summary of the most important developments that were included in the databases in Q1 2016.

Liquefaction projects:

The most significant event in Q1 2016, is indisputably the shipment of the first US LNG cargo from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass project in February. In Australia, Chevron started producing LNG and condensate at its 15.6 Mmtpa Gorgon LNG project. The first shipment of LNG has left Barrow Island, bound for Japan. The two additional 5.2 Mmtpa trains will be progressively commissioned throughout 2016-2017. In Indonesia, the startup of the Sengkang LNG project has been pushed back by one year and we now expect it to start commercial production in 2017. Depressed prices have continued to weigh on project development. In Australia, Woodside decided to freeze the Browse FLNG project. In Indonesia, the Abadi project, another large FLNG, was postponed and will be probably be redesigned as an onshore project. In Colombia, financially embattled PEP has canceled its FLNG project and in Canada, Altagas has announced the postponement of the Douglas Channel LNG projects in Canada.