LNG

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Global exports eased to 30.65MMt as Hormuz restrictions held Ras Laffan to 23 percent utilisation, leaving the US with 32 percent of supply

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Ras Laffan loaded 21 cargoes in July, the strongest month since the March shutdown, according to our data. But the recovery is still not reaching the global market: no Qatari cargo has departed for Europe since the closure, a third of July's liftings shuttled to Gulf neighbours, and several sit laden at the Ras Laffan anchorage.

Two developments suggest an ongoing US–EU methane row is deflating: a leaked Commission recommendation would suspend penalties to the end of the decade, and a fresh Rystad study says compliant supply is abundant. Yet Washington stays loud and US producers are holding back from European term deals. The contradiction is not in the policy. It is in where each claim bites, writes our Markets Editor, Dr Alexander Wilk. 

A cautious reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and Qatar’s quest to quickly reinstate LNG deliveries is cooling the scramble for alternative LNG supply — and that may blunt, rather than boost, the urgency behind Canada’s and the United States’ export ambitions. Pacific-facing projects still appeal to Asian offtakers, but the immediate panic premium that had sharpened buyer interest is fading; our Markets Editor Anja Karl has more. 

The first monthly rise in global exports since January came almost entirely from Qatar, as a partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz let Ras Laffan begin loading again. It is a beginning, not a recovery: the basin still sits 71 percent below where it was a year ago, and the volume that filled Europe's refill in June was American, not Qatari. Storage closed the month 10 points behind last year, and the continent enters the peak injection window as the residual buyer once more, our Markets Editor Dr Alexander Wilk writes. 

Asia: Asian countries are stepping up investment in domestic energy to curb reliance on imported LNG, as energy security overtakes cost following the three-month disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. China, India and Pakistan are accelerating spending on coal, renewables and nuclear power to reduce exposure to LNG imports.