Oversupply hits Asian, European LNG prices

london — Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) broke below the $5 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) mark this week following a 13week price slide that reflects the absence of growth in demand or any major outages.

Spot prices for May delivery to Northeast Asia dropped 80¢ to $4.65 per mmBtu this week according to traders although there were few actual transactions with Asia’s biggest buyers, Japan, Korea or China.

Asian LNG spot prices are now at their lowest level since May 2016 and close to the lowest point in Refinitiv records going back to 2010 of $4.00 per mmBtu, which was reached in April 2016.

They are also lower than the European natural gas hub price in the Netherlands and Britain, which usually trade at a premium to spot Asian LNG prices. The last time this happened was in January and February of 2015, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

There were two transactions completed in the Platts market on close window, both cargoes to India.

The first one was sold by Vitol to Gunvor for Indian west coast delivery at the start of May for $4.55 per mmBtu. Vitol also sold to Glencore a cargo to Dahej terminal for the end of May at $4.75 per mmBtu.

In Europe, prices were heard at discounts of 20¢ to monthahead Dutch gas prices at the TTF hub, which were at around $4.98 per mmBtu on Thursday. —