March 2018 -E

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Petroleum Devolopments
26
Volume44 Issue 3
Jan.
2017 Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan.
2018
Natural Gas (2) 3.3 2.8 2.9 3.1 3.2 3.0 3.0 2.9 3.0 2.9 3.0 2.8 3.7
WTI Crude (3) 9.1 9.2 8.6 8.8 8.4 7.8 8.1 8.3 8.3 8.9 9.8 10.0 11.0
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 January 2018
increased by $0.87/million BTU comparing with the previous month level to reach
$3.69/million BTU.
The comparison, shown in table (5), between natural gas prices and the WTI
crude reveal differential of $7.3/ 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 December 2017, the price of Japanese LNG imports increased by $0.2/million
BTU comparing with the previous month to reach $8.1 million BTU, the price of
Chinese LNG imports increased by $0.4/million BTU comparing with the previous
month to reach $8.1/ million BTU, and the price of Korean LNG imports increased
by $0.6/million BTU comparing with the previous month to reach $8.3/ million BTU.
2.2. LNG Imports
Total Japanese, Korean and Chinese LNG imports from various sources, increased
by 24.4% or 3.4 million tons from the previous month level to reach 17.158 million
tons.
Table (6) shows the prices and quantities of LNG imported by Japan, South
Korea, and China for the period 2015-2017.