The price increases are exceptional since they come during...

The price increases are exceptional since they come during spring months in the Northern Hemisphere when LNG demand is usually tepid. Demand for LNG and consequently its price increases during cold winter months in North Asia and drop considerably during milder spring months, and often pick back up to some degree again during hot summer months amid more air conditioning usage.
The concern now for LNG users and traders is that high mid-year prices could translate to even higher prices for the upcoming winter season.Related: Shale Drillers’ $7 Billion Hedging Error
North Asian buyers, Japan, China, and South Korea represent the three largest LNG buyers in the world, with that demand growth projected to increase even more as China buys more natural gas to offset record air pollution levels in its urban centers and per Beijing’s mandate that gas make up at least 10 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2020.. Further gas earmarks are set for 2030. China’s LNG imports for the first four months of 2018 were up almost 60 percent compared to the same period last year.
In December, China passed South Korea to become the world’s second largest importer of LNG. According to commodities data provider S&P Platts Global, China imported 5.05 million mt of LNG, up 38.25 percent year on year, registering its single highest ever monthly import volume since it started importing LNG in 2006.
China’s increased LNG procurement could also shorten the ongoing supply glut of the super cooled fuel that until around a year ago was projected to last until round 2022, even later. China’s gas demand is projected to triple to more than 400 bcm by 2040 from 210 bcm in 2016, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said in November, a development that has already altered gas markets in Asia, and even globally.
By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com