NGI’s LNG Insight was launched in late 2019 to provide news and data about the international export trade, as well as educate those less familiar with the market in North America and beyond.
LNG 101: Master the Language of a Global Market showcases part of that effort and provides a collection of NGI’s regular LNG 101 columns, which aim to explain the fundamentals and other factors that influence the global natural gas market each day.
Topics Include...
LNG Basics
Shipping
Financing Massive LNG Contracts
Oil-Indexed
LNG Contracts
And More!
According to Royal Dutch Shell plc, the world’s largest LNG
trader, 600,000 lots were traded using the JKM futures contract in
2019, compared with less than 200,000 lots in the prior year. In its
fourth annual LNG outlook, Shell in February said spot trading accounted for 30% of all deliveries in 2019, another indication of a
rapidly evolving market.
The Promise and Peril of a Changing LNG Market
Oil-indexed contracts accounted for about a quarter of gas purchases in Europe in 2018, according to the International Gas Union’s
(IGU) latest wholesale price survey. While most of those were predominantly pipeline imports, oil is still linked to LNG purchasing in
Europe, a key balancing arm for the world’s gas trade.
Exploring the Curious Case of Oil-Indexed LNG Contracts
At the end of last year, there were 601 vessels in the world’s
LNG tanker fleet, according to the International Group of Liquefied
Natural Gas Importers. Given the dynamics of supply and demand at
any given point in time, the shipping market is feast or famine.
An Explanation of Shipping, LNG’s Pipeline on Water
So how is LNG priced in the United States, and what attracted
buyers to travel even farther across the sea for it? The heart of the
answer lies in the commercial structure that export terminals along the Gulf Coast and in Maryland are operating under.
The Basics of U.S. LNG; How it’s Sold and Why It Matters
While large export projects often have been financed entirely
by their sponsors, the funding often is a staged process. Given the large amounts of required funding, there’s typically more than one sponsor and various sources
The Complex Process of Financing Massive LNG Projects
While the market is shifting, much of the global gas trade is
still underpinned by long-term contracts, signed for supply periods
of up to 20 years. Pricing structures negotiated years ago might not
reflect the value of natural gas today
The Thorny Process of Renegotiating LNG Supply Contracts
Small-scale LNG is generally considered to include the production and distribution of smaller quantities of the fuel from liquefaction plants all the way down to regasification units. The definition is applied to anything in the LNG industry smaller than today’s conventional sizes.
Defining Small-Scale LNG and Its Advantages
Asian natural gas prices have hit levels not seen in years, and
European prices are also strong. U.S. liquefaction trains are working overtime as American cargoes are moving toward big premiums
overseas and helping to recover some of this summer’s losses, when prices fell amid lackluster demand.
The Fine Lines Between Baseload, Peak and Nameplate Liquefaction Capacity
The Panama Canal is the preferred route between the
Atlantic and the Pacific as it generally takes 30 days to reach
Japan from the Gulf Coast. However, shippers have opted to
take longer routes through the Suez Canal, which takes about
39 days one way, and around the Cape of Good Hope, which
takes about 45 days.
The Panama Canal’s Impact on Global Gas Markets
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