LNG

India’s power-sector LNG buying stays high into June as utilities scramble to offset missing term cargoes. None of India’s 16 GW gas-grid connected powergen capacity received contracted Qatari LNG cargoes in April and May, amid widespread heatwaves. Provisional June data indicate the shortfall persisted, keeping spot procurement at unusually high levels.

Suspension of nearly 10.2 mtpa of Qatari LNG supply to Asia is forcing utility buyers to switch to coal, with an additional 150 million tonnes (Mt) of consumption projected through 2030, roughly half of which in 2026 alone. A supply gap, not green policies, is driving demand, with RystadEnergy anticipating an LNG shortfall of 35 million tons this year.

Workers at Ichthys LNG have threatened to escalate strikes starting Thursday after wage negotiations with Inpex failed, raising the concerns over disruptions to roughly 10% of Australia's LNG exports. 

Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will result in a “quick drop in prices,” though Fitch Rating assumes a five-month closure of the critical waterway through July. Oil markets began to balance in the interim thanks to pipelines, but LNG cargoes stay largely trapped.

As Asian netbacks for delivered LNG cargoes outbid European prices, buyers are struggling to attract sufficient volumes to offset a looming storage shortfall. An additional 40 cargoes per month would be needed over the next five months, according to ICIS calculations, though economists doubt this is achievable.

Eskom has entered an LNG supply agreement with Zululand Energy Terminal (ZET) to underpin its planned 3,000 MW gas-to-power project in Richards Bay, South Africa. The deal will make Eskom a “foundation customer” at the proposed regas terminal, which will offer open-access LNG imports. 

Four LNG cargoes loaded from Sabine Pass LNG and Plaquemines LNG between 5 and 18 May initially signalled arrival in Tianjin, China. All four have since updated their declared destinations and are headed for South Korea and Japan instead.

ADNOC is preparing to sign orders for a new batch of LNG carriers at Chinese shipyards in the coming days, the head of ADNOC Logistic & Services, Abdulkareem Al Masabi said. Four to six 175,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers will be ordered to accelerate the company’s entry into the global gas trading market. The latest move follows an order for six LNGC’s worth more than $1.2 billion from China's Jiangnan Shipyard, with the first vessel delivered in April.

Petroleum, not LNG, accounts for most of the United States’ energy trade, reaching a 31 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2025, followed by gas exports with 9 quads, according to U.S. government data. Yet natural gas is the faster growing export, with sales quadrupling over the past decade.

US federal regulators have granted NextDecade another three years to complete the first five trains at its Rio Grande LNG export project, extending the in-service-deadline to November 2031. NextDecade subsequently filed an application for train 6.