The Japanese government said the average price of spot liquefied natural gas cargoes imported into Japan in August was $7.70 per million British thermal units compared with $12.50 per MMBtu in the same month a year ago, a fall of $4.80 per MMBtu.
US liquefied natural gas player Energy Transfer said its asset portfolio will benefit from natural gas production and the emergence of LNG markets along the Gulf Coast.
Japan's nuclear power plant restarts should not have a large impact on the nation's liquefied natural gas demand because the four-year shift to more LNG will not be reversed and the putting online of closed N-plants will be limited.
Woodside Petroleum, the largest Australian liquefied natural gas operator, said it was in takeover talks to acquire the Papua New Guinea LNG stakeholding company, Oil Search, which has shares in one operating plant and one project.
Iran said it had been promised help from Spain in becoming involved in the liquefied natural gas export cargo business by making use of the Spanish network of terminals, Europe's largest.
Natural gas hub prices in Northwest Europe are coming under pressure from the long and lower-priced LNG market and this is leading to more cargoes from excess capacity being shipped to the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Belgian liquefied natural gas shipping group and project developer Exmar, controlled by Nicolas Saverys, said it was still on track to merge its LNG project assets with those of a trust set up by Norwegian shipping tycoon John Fredriksen and Oslo-listed Flex LNG.
Australia's six new liquefied natural gas projects being built at a cost of over US$150 billion, making the nation the largest world producer by volume, will struggle to turn a profit in the current low oil price environment, a senior International Energy Agency official said.
Noble Energy, the US developer of natural gas and LNG projects in the East Mediterranean, said the government of Egypt has reiterated its support for importing natural gas from Israel for both domestic use and LNG export purposes.
Uruguayan Energy Minister Carolina Cosse said the South American nation had cancelled plans by Japan's Marubeni Corp. and Engie of France to deploy the world's largest Floating Storage and Regasification Unit as a liquefied natural gas import terminal.