GLOBAL LNG-Prices surge as Egypt award helps spur spot activity
Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices for December delivery surged this week as traders and energy companies moved to fill slots awarded in the recent Egypt tender.
The price of Asian spot cargoes for December delivery rose to $7.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) from $6.80 the previous week.
Egypt awarded a 55 cargo tender last week to companies including Trafigura, Vitol, Noble Group, Gas Natural, PetroChina and Shell for deliveries starting before the end of the year.
“There’s some short covering demand from traders and portfolio players,” said a broker.
Three sources said allocations from Egypt’s tender award included 16 cargoes for Trafigura, 13 for Gas Natural, between 5 and 7 for Petrochina, and one or two for Vitol.
Traders were awaiting the results of the Dubai Supply Authority (DUSUP) tender to buy between 4-6 LNG cargoes in both 2016 and 2017.
On the supply side, Papua New Guinea’s export plant has sold a cargo to BG Group for loading in mid-November as part of a recent tender, trade sources said.
The Papua New Guinea LNG project is expected to run at least 6 percent above its name plate capacity through 2016, Oil Search Ltd said earlier this week, highlighting the value of its prized asset.
PNG LNG ran at an annualised rate of 7.4 million tonnes a year (mtpa) in the September quarter, and Oil Search said it was confident the plant would at least run at 7.3 mtpa for the rest of this year and 2016, above its design capacity of 6.9 mtpa.
Oil company BP has signed a $10 billion LNG supply deal with China’s Huadian power producer, sealing the agreement as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain.
In East Africa, U.S. energy company Anadarko is pushing ahead with its planned $20 billion Mozambique gas export project and will make a final investment decision once the government approves its development plan.
Other tender news included Russia’s Sakhalin II LNG export plant, which is to offer to sell four cargoes, while Indonesia’s new Donggi-Senoro LNG export plant has launched a tender to sell two cargoes loading in December.
Source: Reuters
