GLOBAL LNG-Prices on downward spiral amid warm winter, high stocks

SINGAPORE: Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) continued their downward spiral this week, falling to a four-month low as demand from top buyers Japan and China failed to materialize amid ample inventory.

Spot prices for January delivery in North Asia LNG-AS were estimated at about $9.80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down 20 cents from the previous week, while spot prices for cargoes delivered in February were estimated at about $9.70 to 9.80 per mmBtu, according to trade sources.

The market structure has flipped into a backwardated one, where prices for cargoes loading in the current month are higher than those loading in the forward months, making storage of the super-chilled fuel uneconomical.

Several of the tankers storing LNG off Singapore and Malaysia waters recently appear to be on the move, likely prompted by the change in market structure, traders said.

Demand from China, the world’s second-largest LNG importer, appears to be tepid with top supplier China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) offering to sell cargoes for January, traders added.

“The three oil majors’ storage tanks are very full and so far, north China is not cold,” a China-based LNG trader said referring to natural gas storage tanks of CNOOC, Sinopec and CNPC.

Industrial gas demand in North China is showing signs of a sharp slowdown as small manufacturers shut their doors or buy less gas, unable to cope with a drop-off in export orders and costs related to Beijing’s pollution control and reform measures, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Natural gas inventory levels in Japan and South Korea are still high, trade sources said.

“There is lots of LNG in Europe too. I expect prices to fall further,” an European trader said.

“China and South Korea have taken more cargoes than they expected they would need. Singapore stocks are also full.”

TENDERS AND DEALS

Indian Oil Corp likely bought two LNG cargoes on a delivered ex-ship basis into Gujarat between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14, and from Jan. 21 to Jan. 28 from trader Glencore at close to $9 per mmBtu, traders said, though the deal could not immediately be confirmed.

Gail India is proposing to swap three LNG cargoes across the first quarter of next year, trade sources said. Gail is offering a cargo a month from Cove Point for loading in the first quarter of next year in exchange for corresponding deliveries to India, one of the traders said.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), Angola LNG and Nigeria LNG offered cargoes this week, adding to the glut.

The post GLOBAL LNG-Prices on downward spiral amid warm winter, high stocks appeared first on ARYNEWS.

from ARYNEWS https://ift.tt/2zAtkWr

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma

Arif Alvi files request to be acquitted in the PTV attack case

He says he never asked for presidential immunity in the case from Samaa Digital https://ift.tt/2DHMdvh

Young girl’s tragic story makes her symbol of Yemen war

Buthaina Mansur al-Rimi’s life has changed drastically since last year — orphaned in Sanaa, the little girl controversially ended up in Saudi Arabia for medical care and has just returned to Yemen’s capital. Her entire immediate family was wiped out in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s government, using an explosive device Amnesty International says was made in the US. Images of Buthaina’s rescue and a picture of her swollen and bruised at a hospital trying to force open one of her eyes with her fingers were beamed worldwide. That international fame saw her become something of a propaganda pawn in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi media. “I was in my mother’s room with my father, sisters, brother and uncle, the first missile hit, and my father went to get us sugar to get over the shock, but then the second missile hit, and then the third,” she says. “And then the house fell,” adds the little girl, who says she is eight. It was the

Latest News

Search This Blog