Asian buyers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are preparing for the war in the Middle East to disrupt deliveries for months, as a prolonged outage at the world’s largest export plant tightens supply and lifts prices.
Companies in Thailand are looking to buy LNG cargoes for delivery through May, traders with knowledge of the matter said.
Bangladesh bought shipments for next month and is considering procuring fuel for May onward as well, the traders said.
Photo: AFP
Major buyers in Taiwan and South Korea are also preparing to purchase more supply for those two months, they said.
The moves demonstrated that Asia’s importers are not relying on a swift resolution to the US-Israeli war against Iran, and that the outage in Qatar — which supplies 20 percent of the world’s LNG — is expected to be prolonged.
Spot LNG prices in Asia are trading at about US$18 per million British thermal units, traders said.
Although prices have pulled back from a peak of about US$25 per million British thermal units last week, they are still 80 percent higher than before the conflict began.
Qatar shut the Ras Laffan export facility last week after an Iranian drone strike, upending the market and sending the price of gas in Europe and Asia soaring.
Companies including Shell PLC have declared force majeure on their shipments of Qatari LNG to customers in Asia.
At least nine LNG shipments bound for Europe have rerouted to Asia since the fighting began, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed, after Asian buyers offered higher rates than their rivals in Europe.
Taiwan has started securing alternative LNG for May, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The nation has fully secured supply for this month and next, Lee said.
India, which sources about half of its LNG from Qatar, has been scrambling to procure alternative shipments for immediate delivery, traders said.
Gail India Ltd booked an LNG cargo for this month on Tuesday after a few failed attempts, while others are still looking, they said.
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