Liquefied Natural Gas Market Under the Authority of Iran

Under the title above, Maria Belova wrote about the implications of Iran's threat to close the Ormuz Strait to oil and gas transporters and to reverse such an attack. action on the world market.

In response to Iran's threat to stop the movement of oil tankers across the Strait of Hormuz, the United States said the US Navy would provide them with free shipping. However, the military solution is hardly possible. In other words, oil and gas carriers will not pass their dangerous shipments through a possible area of ​​military operations, and no agency will agree to insure against such risks.

Importers and investors must therefore take risks. The Strait of Ormuz is the busiest waterway in the world: about 20% of the world's oil is in circulation and nearly 30% of the LNG passes through it each year. If 8 million of the 18.5 million barrels per day are piped to foreign markets (pipelines in Saudi Arabia, one in the United Arab Emirates and one in Iraq), the road will be closed to all LNG produced in the region Million tons in 2017), including domestic production (77.3 million tons). Because the gas market, unlike oil, has not yet put in place a mechanism for securing strategic stocks, the shortage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the market has quickly become almost impossible.

Asia, which accounts for 22% of its liquefied natural gas imports from the Gulf, and Europe, which supplies 33% of its LNG imports into the Strait of Ormuz, will be threatened. If the strait is closed, Asia will experience shortages of gas in two weeks and Europe within 16 days.

This will benefit US natural gas suppliers and the Russian company "Gazprom". Americans will finally be able to export the economy of gas exports to Europe from the cycle of losses (according to the results of 2017, US exporters lost about $ 15 per ton of LNG supplied to Europe). Gazprom, one of the few international companies capable of rapidly supplying additional gas to the market, will be able to increase its gas pipeline exports to Europe and increase its revenues thanks to rising gas prices.

The article reflects only the opinion of the newspaper