Asian and European LNG prices increase for third week propelled by geopolitical and energy policy concerns
Asian liquefied natural gas prices and European cargo values increased for a third week as the Northern Hemisphere winter gas season is set to close with high storage yet to be tested for a second year by adverse weather while crude oil hit a four-month high on negative supply forecasts.
Asian LNG prices jump and US LNG futures are up 10 percent while UK attracts Algerian and Qatari cargoes
Liquefied natural gas liftings from global plants will be lower in the coming week as prices for Asia jumped 5 percent and US LNG derivatives increased by more than 10 percent amid a rebound in already high European natural benchmarks after they attracted timely LNG cargoes for the UK from Algeria and Qatar.
Global commodities exchange operator CME to launch US LNG Export future on October 14
Global commodities exchange operator CME Group said it would launch a futures contract for liquefied natural gas linked to physically delivered volumes from the Sabine Pass export plant of Cheniere Energy.
Intercontinental Exchange and S&P Global to launch window to boost LNG trade and pricing
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses, and US energy pricing company S&P Global Platts said they were launching an electronic platform known as eWindow for the liquefied natural gas market.
Unlike oil, which has several financial and physical trading platforms and exchanges, LNG markets are still evolving with various companies offering different productions
Platts, a unit of the US credit rating agency S&P Global Inc, already uses the eWindow platform as part of its pricing process.
The platform allows participating companies to key in their bids, offers or transactions directly and which appear on a screen for others to see.
It is aiming to launch the new platform with ICE in a few months.
ICE and Platts said the eWindow platform will be an online data-entry and communications tool that allows market participants in the Platts Markets On Close (MOC) price assessment process to communicate bids, offers and transactions directly to Platts editors and the marketplace simultaneously.
“Its grid-like screen offers an easy, at-a-glance view and allows market participants to instantly respond to the bids and offers submitted,” said a statement.
“The eWindow method is already widely adopted to power the MOC process for key oil benchmarks and now will be accessible for Platts LNG price assessments, such as Platts Japan Korea Marker, the benchmark price for LNG delivered into Northeast Asia,” they added.
ICE already has the broadest range of natural gas benchmarks, hosting UK National Balancing Point, Dutch Title Transfer Facility, Henry Hub and the Japan Korea Marker prices, allowing market participants to hedge their price risk via futures and options for the major gas hubs globally.
ICE-JKM LNG (Platts) futures and options contracts are increasingly being used as the benchmark contract for LNG in Asia and continue to break new trading records as one of the fastest growing natural gas benchmarks and the most liquid Asian natural gas benchmark.
ICE-JKM LNG hit a record 44,394 lots for futures and options combined in June and reached a new open interest record of 52,080 lots, at the end of June.
“As LNG markets continue to liberalize and new types of price agreements emerge between buyers and sellers of LNG, a range of hedging products are critical to allow the market to hedge risk and manage price exposure,” said the companies.
Chuck Vice, deputy chairman of ICE said Platts and ICE have had a long and successful history of working together to bring transparent price discovery to energy markets.
“The launch of eWindow is an important milestone in the ongoing maturity and evolution of LNG markets, moving it to the next level in terms of standardization and transparency,” he said.
“ICE is home to the broadest range of natural gas benchmark futures markets with an established and growing global community of gas traders using futures and options to transact and manage their price risk,” he stated.
Trading does not occur on the eWindow, but the tool's compatibility with ICE technology allows eWindow users to execute trades on the ICE platform without leaving the Platts MOC price assessment process and environment.
Australian liquefaction plant operator Woodside invests in two LNG trading and data platforms
Woodside Petroleum, the operator of North West Shelf and Pluto liquefied natural gas plants and a stakeholder in the Wheatstone facility, said it had made investments in two online LNG trading and data platforms in a move to bring greater price transparency, efficiency and compliance to markets.
Japanese spot LNG prices rise by 7 percent in a month and more than 84 percent in a year
The average price of spot LNG contracted in August 2018 for shipment to Japan was given by the government as $10.70 per million British thermal units, an increase of 7 percent on the previous month and more than 84 percent higher than the contracted price in August 2017.
International Gas Union wholesale price survey confirms big changes in price formation for LNG
The International Gas Union has released its 2017 Wholesale Gas Price Survey, confirming significant changes in wholesale price formation mechanisms during a period of key developments and upheaval in the global LNG and gas market.
Japan continues LNG market reform push by taking message to ministerial meeting in Algeria
The influential Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it was continuing its global efforts to overhaul the liquefied natural gas trading market and recently took its message to a ministerial energy meeting hosted by Algeria, the North African LNG producer.
