LNG Spot Prices In Asia Spike To Four-Year Highs

LNG Spot Prices In Asia Spike To Four-Year Highs

By Tim Daiss - Jun 18, 2018, 2:00 PM CDT
Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices continue their upward trajectory, reaching seasonal highs not seen since mid-2014 when global oil prices were trading over $100 per barrel. This time, however, spot prices aren’t spiking on the back of exorbitantly high global oil prices but come as buyers in North Asia compete for cargoes with Mexico and Egypt amid supply outages from global producers.
Production setbacks in the United States, Australia and Malaysia also tightened supply, while recent LNG trading volumes in Asia have also been supported by the restocking of depleted inventories by South Korean and Japanese utilities after an unseasonably cold winter.
Spot-LNG refers to LNG that is traded on a cargo to cargo basis, and does not mean term
contracts of LNG (so-called long, medium, and short-term contracts). Long term LNG contracts are priced to an oil-indexation formula thus are more sensitive to swings in global oil prices than spot prices. However, spot prices are also affected to some degree by changes in oil prices.
Spot LNG prices for July delivery in North Asia spiked some $1.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last week to settle at $11.60/MMBtu – a massive increase for the super cooled fuel and a seasonal four year high. This time last year prices hovered just under $6/MMBtu.
Sharp price gains forced portfolio LNG players and end-users in Asia to urgently fill short positions, paying well in excess of $11.60/MMBtu, Reuters said in a report. One source at an Asian producer said that producers were offering August cargoes at $12/MMBtu.Related: Iran Looks To Veto Saudi, Russian Oil Production Proposal
Japan Korea Marker (JKM) prices for LNG hit $11.40/MMBtu last week, increasing by 95 cents on Thursday, the largest single-day price movement for the Asian benchmark since March 2011.