Review of natural gas and LNG prices

by Editor

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The Northeast Asian assessed spot LNG price JKM for last week (14 April – 17 April) rose to low-USD 12s/MBtu on 17 April (June delivery) from low-USD 11s/MBtu the previous weekend (May delivery, 11 April).

JKM was on an upward trend throughout the week as bearish market sentiment improved as the Trump Administration began reviewing its tariff measures and unplanned outages at several LNG shipping terminals in Asia, including Bintulu.

METI announced on 16 April that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation as of 13 April stood at 2.13 million tonnes, unchanged from the previous week.

The European gas price TTF (May delivery) for last week (14 April – 17 April) rose to USD 11.9/MBtu on 17 April from USD 11.1/MBtu the previous weekend (11 April).

TTF rose to USD 11.5/MBtu at the start of the week due to the impact of an unplanned gas production outage in Norway. Since then, while relatively warm weather and stable supplies continued, it rebounded from last week’s low prices to USD 11.9/MBtu.

According to AGSI+, the EU-wide underground gas storage was 36.4% on 18 April, up from 35.1% the previous weekend, down 41.4% from the same period last year, and down 22.6% over the five-year average.

The U.S. gas price HH (May delivery) for last week (14 April – 17 April) fell to USD 3.3/MBtu on 17 April from USD 3.5/MBtu the previous weekend (11 April). Venture Global announced the start of commercial operations at Calcasieu Pass LNG on 15 April.

The EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report released on 17 April showed U.S. natural gas inventories as of 11 April at 1,846 Bcf, up 16 Bcf from the previous week, down 20.6% from the same period last year, and 3.9% decrease over the five-year average.

Updated: April 21

Source: JOGMEC

Review of natural gas and LNG prices

Europe’s exposure to a wild and volatile global gas market