It’s been quite a year already, with energy markets roiled by the Iran war. To survive such swings, you need a deep understanding of market fundamentals so that you can anticipate their effects. That’s today’s subject and the focus of our upcoming School of Energy: Foundations.
It’s been quite a year already, with energy markets roiled by the Iran war. To survive such swings, you need a deep understanding of market fundamentals so that you can anticipate their effects. That’s today’s subject and the focus of our upcoming School of Energy: Foundations.
The ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran and the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz isn’t just stranding significant volumes of refined products in the Persian Gulf. It’s also resulting in potentially extensive and long-lasting damage to some refineries there and trapping crude oil that Asian refiners depend on.
A lot of attention has been paid to the massive volumes of crude oil and LNG currently trapped in the Persian Gulf. What’s sometimes overlooked, however, is that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also major exporters of refined products, and that they and Qatar also send out copious amounts of LPG.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine not only led to the demise of Russian pipeline gas supplies to Europe and caused prices to spike, but it also helped create new arbitrage opportunities for U.S. LNG shippers. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the different approaches the U.S. upstream has adopted in response.
Some market observers see a massive wave of LNG supply ready to flood the market, but the fears of cargo cancellations may be exaggerated, with the “great wave” more like a gradually rising tide.
The long-term contract has been the cornerstone of the global LNG industry since its inception. Such contracts between upstream LNG producers and downstream utility companies have provided buyers with security of supply over a protracted period while guaranteeing producers sufficient income to justify the investment in export facilities and shipping fleets. But times are changing, with significant LNG volumes under long-term contracts scheduled to expire by 2031. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the potential implications for LNG buyers and producers around the world, the options available to them, and how their choices may impact LNG commercial models.
About 60% of global LNG imports in 2023 came from only three countries — Australia, Qatar and the U.S. — sometimes dubbed the “LNG Trinity.” All three are geographically remote from each other and differ considerably in terms of configuration, politics, economics and strategy. But all three are looking to consolidate and potentially grow their global presence at a time when expectations regarding future LNG demand are evolving and the role of natural gas is shifting to become increasingly complementary to intermittent renewable sources. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the differences within the LNG Trinity and how they may impact — and be impacted by — developments in the global gas market.
As recently as the mid-to-late 2000s, the U.S. was expected to become a major importer of LNG. Instead, the opposite occurred. Once forecast to need tens of millions of metric tons of LNG each year to meet its own power needs, the U.S. is now producing about the same amount and sending it out to Asia, Europe, and other overseas markets. That swing — from the expectation of being a major LNG importer to the reality of being a top-tier producer/exporter — has had a huge impact on the global market, and the influence of that reversal cannot be overemphasized. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how U.S. production has moved LNG closer to being a global commodity, the effect of growing U.S. production on the market, and prospects for future growth.
Among the 21 countries able to liquefy methane and export LNG, Australia, Qatar, and the U.S. are the hands-down leaders, holding more than half the world’s liquefaction capacity among them. For now, Australia holds the top position but its capacity buildout is all but complete. While a number of liquefaction projects are planned Down Under, only one has reached the final investment decision (FID) stage in 2021, and it’s relatively small. Future growth seems much more likely to come from the two other big guns. Developers in the U.S. are cautiously thawing the plans for LNG projects they put on ice in mid-2020, when global natural gas prices slumped along with economies during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in February, Qatar, which was runner-up to Australian capacity until it slipped to third place due to recent U.S. additions, took FID on the first of two supersized projects to expand its LNG capacity. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss Qatar’s expansion plans and how they relate to developments elsewhere.
