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Petroleum Devolopments
22
Volume44 Issue 7
May
2017 June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan.
2018 Feb. Mar. Apr. May
Natural Gas (2) 3.2 3.0 3.0 2.9 3.0 2.9 3.0 2.8 3.9 2.7 2.7 2.8 2.8
WTI Crude (3) 8.4 7.8 8.1 8.3 8.3 8.9 9.8 10.0 11.0 10.7 10.8 11.4 12.1
1. British Thermal Unit.
2. Henry Hub spot price.
3. WTI – West Texas Intermediate Crude oil price, in dollars per barrel, is converted to dollar per million BTU using a conversion factor of 5.80
million BTU/bbl.
Source:
Table 5 Henry Hub Natural Gas and WTI Crude Average Spot Prices, 2017-2018 ($/ Million BTU1)
II. The Natural Gas Market
1- Spot and Future Prices of Natural Gas in US market
The monthly average of spot natural gas price at the Henry Hub in May 2018
remained stable at the same previous month level of $2.80/ million BTU.
The comparison, shown in table (5), between natural gas prices and the WTI
crude reveal differential of $9.3/ million BTU in favor of WTI crude.
2- LNG Markets in North East Asia
The following paragraphs review the developments in LNG Markets in North
East Asia, concerning prices and Japanese, Chinese and South Korean imports of
LNG and their sources, and Spot LNG Exporters Netbacks.
2.1. LNG Prices
In April 2018, the price of Japanese LNG imports decreased by $0.02/million BTU
comparing with the previous month to reach $9.4 million BTU, the price of Korean
LNG imports decreased by $0.1/million BTU comparing with the previous month to
reach $9.3/ million BTU, whereas the price of Chinese LNG imports remained stable
at the same previous month level of $8.7/ million BTU.
2.2. LNG Imports
Total Japanese, Korean and Chinese LNG imports from various sources,
decreased by 22% or 3.413 million tons from the previous month level to reach
12.079 million tons.
Table (6) shows the prices and quantities of LNG imported by Japan, South
Korea, and China for the period 2016-2018.