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Spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia fell for the fifth week in a row, with no sign of increasing demand as temperatures remain above average in Asia-Pacific, allowing the price to rise. Europe to absorb its supplies.
Spot prices for the March delivery to Asia LNG-AS fell this week to around 8.00 dollars per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down 20 cents from the previous week, indicated commercial sources.
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), which resells a cargo of reserve aboard the tanker Neo Energy, had illustrated the poor Chinese demand and had been kept off the coast in case of rising consumption.
CNOOC is proposing Neo Energy, along with Hoegh Esperanza, which it has used this winter as a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), said the shipping brokers. This is another sign of weak Chinese demand.
Some market players continue to reschedule deliveries to Asian buyers, a source said a shipment had been pushed back from November to November.
The offers are numerous.
Trading company Trafigura and energy giant Shell offered shipments for the month of March in Asia at 8.00-8.20 USD / MMBtu in the Platts window, but had to cut their bids to 7.75-7 $ 85 / MMbtu due to lack of interest. No transactions took place at the time of publication.
Breakdowns at the Gorgon plant in Australia and Indonesian Bontang did not help prices to strengthen. In Bontang, where one train is offline until next week, Pertamina said that a ship could be in charge of loading a cargo in mid-February, indicating that production is stable, said maritime brokers.
Indonesian Donggi Senoro LNG sells two March cargoes in a tender that will end on Jan. 30, according to the Platts window.
In the Atlantic Basin, Angola LNG proposed a load for the month of February, while the Indian company Gail offered six shipments for 2020 from its catches in the United States, Sabine Pbad and Cove Point, in two calls for tenders. closed this week.
The European LNG price also falls
The fall in Asian prices, combined with the robust prices of European gas platforms, used as a benchmark for LNG trading, led to an influx of goods into Europe, which is now the biggest buyer of US LNG.
But even in that country, LNG prices are down, with two traders claiming that spot shipments are now seen as discounts to British and Dutch natural gas prices, against which they are normally higher.
"Europe is down compared to the indices … Even Spain is flat with TTF (the price of the Dutch gas hub)," said a commercial source based in Europe.
An American cargo ship was sold to Spain to be delivered in late February below Dutch diesel, another operator said. Another American cargo is proposed for delivery in March in Europe.
The request was also from Mexico, CFE, which needed two shipments to be delivered in February.
Charter rates for modern-powered vessels have dropped to $ 60,000 a day this week, half of those at the end of December, and are expected to continue to decline as more ships become available. maritime brokers.
Source: Reuters (report by Ekaterina Kravtsova, additional report by Sabina Zawadzki, edited by Louise Heavens)
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