LNG

Asian liquefied natural gas spot prices regained the initiative from European values with May gaining more than 16 percent as the Dutch Title Transfer Facility wholesale futures price dropped by the same amount with supply concerns helped by the arrival of Northern Hemisphere Spring weather.

The prices of liquefied natural gas on global markets increased to their highest in 2021 in Europe while the spot LNG cargo price for North Asia rose over the $13.00 per million British thermal units level amid oil market concern about US supplies as the differential between North Sea Brent crude and US oil narrowed to well under a dollar.

The US exported 10 liquefied natural gas shipments in the past week, one less than the previous week, as mixed US natural gas prices were offset by increasing LNG values in Europe and Asia on demand expectations even as the market remained over-supplied.

Indian liquefied natural gas monthly imports increased again in August as shipments to Asia gathered pace along with economic activity with September cargoes also pointing at India from Australia and Angola.

PetroChina posted a wider first-half overall net losses and falling revenues, including on imports of LNG and pipeline gas, but said it was optimistic for rest of 2020 on Chinese domestic demand.

The state-controlled Chinese major said in a Web-based earnings presentation that first-half net losses came to 29.98 billion Chinese yuan ($4.39Bln), of which the loss in the second quarter narrowed compared with the first quarter, “indicating a steady improvement in business” trends.

PetroChina is the Hong Kong-listed affiliate of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and has LNG project stakes in Mozambique and Canada.

The company said first-half revenues dropped to 929.04Bln yuan ($136.06Bln), representing a year-on-year decrease of 22.3 percent.

However, the Exploration and Production segment, one of the company’s four divisions, achieved an operating profit of 10.35Bln yuan ($1.51Bln).

The three other operating segments of the Group consist of Refining and Chemicals, Marketing and Natural Gas and Pipeline.

International operations do not constitute a separate operating segment of the Group.

The Marketing division recorded an operating loss of 12.89Bln yuan ($1.88Bln), while the Natural Gas and Pipeline segment achieved an operating profit of 14.37Bln yuan ($2.10Bln).

This was 21.5 percent lower that the 18.30Bln yuan ($2.68Bln) operating posted in the first six months of 2019.

PetroChina said sales volumes of imported natural gas and LNG recorded a net loss of 11.83Bln yuan ($1.73Bln), representing an increase in losses from last year of RMB631M yuan ($92.4M) in the six months..

“Under the influence of Covid-19 and the macroeconomic downturn, global natural gas market demand declined, while the international natural gas prices dropped across the world and LNG spot prices in Europe, America and Northeast Asia hit record lows,” said PetroChina.

PetroChina operates three important Chinese LNG import terminals at Dalian and Tangshan in the northeast of the country and at Rudong in the central Jiangsu province in the coastal area near Shanghai.

PetroChina additionally receives natural gas pipeline supplies from the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan as well Russia through CNPC.

“The growth of demand for domestic natural gas slowed down and output of natural gas continued to increase relatively rapidly, while the growth of imports of natural gas declined substantially,” it added.

PetroChina said that in the first half, the overall domestic consumption of natural gas amounted to 155.6 billion cubic metres, representing an increase of 4.2 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Domestic natural gas output amounted to 95.0 Bcm, an increase of 9.9 percent versus the same period last year.

It noted that first-half Chinese imports of natural gas, both pipeline and LNG, amounted to 66.7 Bcm, representing a rise of 3.3 percent compared with the first half of 2019.

PetroChina’s managing company CNPC now imports pipeline natural gas from Gazprom Power of Siberia project as well as LNG from projects such as the Yamal plant in Arctic Russia and from PetroChina LNG agreements.

The Chinese major is part of Royal Dutch Shell’s LNG Canada project under its own name PetroChina and has a stake in the Area 4 reserves in the Rovuma Basin offshore Mozambique with Italian company Eni and ExxonMobil.

May 13 (LNGJ) - Asian LNG spot prices in the form of the Japan-Korea Marker from Platts are showing signs of partial recovery with the June cargoes edging higher to $2.115 per million British thermal units and July cargoes at $2.450 per MMBtu. The all-time JKM low was recently under $2.00 per MMBtu and traders may be heartened by the October JKM moving above $3.000 per MMBtu level and December 2020 being at $4.235 per MMBtu.

   Among LNG carriers heading for Asia with deliveries are the 217,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex carrier “Al Kharsaah”, scheduled to deliver a contract shipment on May 15 to the Thai import terminal at Map Ta Phut. The 173,400 cubic metres capacity vessel “Woodside Rees Withers” was due to arrive on May 18 at the Pyeongtaek terminal in South Korea with a shipment from Wheatstone LNG in Western Australia. The 165,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Diamond Gas Orchid” is scheduled to discharge a US cargo on May 25 at the Shimizu Sodeshi import terminal in Japan from Cameron LNG in Louisiana.

The French major Total has posted solid earnings in a lower-priced market place and reported progress on all liquefied natural gas project fronts from Russia to Africa and Australia.

LNG spot cargo prices lost their momentum in the past week with December 2019 and January 2020 deliveries being set up and averages for North Asia dropping under the $7.00 per million British thermal units level as supplies were ample.