Winter seems disinclined to loosen its grasp over LPG markets, particularly the heavier liquids. While inclement weather has delayed loadings, exacerbating supply shortages in Asia and the Mediterranean, the root cause of the lingering tightness is the Middle East. OPEC+ production cuts that bega..
The global gas market continued its soft start to 2019, with the JKM Mar-19 contract expiring at 7.3 $/mmbtu, compared to the 10.5 $/mmbtu at which it expired this time last year. While the LNG supply side has stayed strong so far this year, demand in Asia has started to slow.
With NE Asian..
Every year in January, due to the Lunar New Year, Chinese official data releases are limited to import and export figures issued by customs. As such, January data for domestic production and power generation has yet to be released. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) typically publishes combi..
As we expected at the start of the year, the global LNG market will see a raft of projects move to FID despite market pricing getting softer and softer. On the new projects front, this last week has seen Venture Global announce construction start on the 10.8 Mtpa Calcasieu Pass project, while Ana..
Fundamentals is our monthly review of global oil data, this is the February 2019 edition.
Our Q4 18 balances deteriorated further this month as final demand readings came in shockingly low. Global oil demand fell y/y by 0.39 mb/d in December 2018 to 98.91 mb/d, around 1.1 mb/d lower than our prel..
The Mar-19 contract has started trading at a discount to Apr-19, a rare occurrence, due to what certainly feels like the temporary early onset of spring. Such contango is less common at EU hubs than it is for the US benchmark, since the introduction of shale has meant that Henry Hub is almost per..
Worries about the global economy continue to cap crude prices even as the physical market is roaring ahead at a time when it should be extremely subdued given refinery works. These worries have merit—after all, near-final data for December show global oil demand fell y/y by the most since 2..
LNG supply posted healthy y/y gains over January and February, but there were no sequential gains on December 2018 numbers. A return to sequential gains will be harder now as LNG train maintenance season is set to begin, but y/y growth will persist as recently started trains (i.e. Yamal T3, Corpu..
Fuel oil markets have been buffeted by the accelerated slide in dry bulk freight rates following the collapse of a dam at a Brazilian iron mine and a surge in Middle Eastern fuel oil exports. The latter looks to be a problem that will fade with the return of warm weather, but the drop in shipping..
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Very mild weather and weak power sector gas demand led Japanese LNG imports to post another hefty y/y loss in January, and the y/y decline in imports is set to increase again in Febr..
Even though we are trading peak turnaround barrels and there’s plenty of chatter about run cuts, voluntary and involuntary OPEC production cuts have tightened the physical crude market. If the market holds around these levels over the next few weeks (notwithstanding the usual volatility see..
The narrative around European gas markets has shifted to be very bearish following a Q4 18 featuring milder-than-normal temperatures and a January with largely normal temperatures. The bears are being fed by bulging European stocks, which were 4.4 bcm higher y/y by the end of January. Even an end..
Australian oil product demand fell from November 2018’s record high and y/y by 9 thousand b/d, to 1.02 mb/d in December 2018, the first decline in demand since December 2017. Weakness in demand was led by gasoline, demand for which fell y/y by 29 thousand b/d to 0.31 mb/d, despite falling p..