*LNG vessel Lagos — Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, price for February delivery into north-east Asia has fallen to $32.60 per metric million British thermal units, mmBtu, down $1.70 or 4.95% from the previous week, industry sources said.
Asian spot LNG prices fell last week as demand remained lukewarm amid ample stock levels and a mild temperature forecast, helping to maintain a steady flow of cargoes heading to Europe.
The price for March delivery was estimated at around $25.00 per mmBtu, the sources added, according to Reuters.
“Reasonable stocks in Asia and strong output from U.S. plants are allowing a large amount of U.S. LNG to continue heading to Europe, helping offset lower pipeline flows from Russia,” said Alex Froley, LNG analyst at data intelligence firm ICIS.
Europe has attracted more than 10 million tonnes of LNG across December and month-to-date in January, according to Rystad Energy.
The arrival of several LNG gas tankers into Europe has helped to ease prices and supply concerns over reverse flows from Germany to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline for 25 successive days so far.
“This is the most dynamic winter we have ever seen for LNG and global gas markets. It has been a tug-of-war between a well-stocked and well-balanced East Asian LNG market and an extraordinarily tight European gas market,” said Tamir Druz, managing director at Capra Energy Group.
“We have never seen such a prolonged and substantial premium in (Dutch) gas over north-east Asian LNG prices. Overall, we expect the market to continue trading within a wide, yet high range, with short-term dynamics like weather playing a deciding role in guiding weekly direction,” he added.
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