March 2019-E

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Petroleum Devolopments
28
Volume 45 Issue 3
Jan.
2018 Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan.
2019
Natural Gas (2) 3.9 2.7 2.7 2.8 2.8 3.0 2.8 2.9 3.0 3.3 4.1 4.1 3.1
WTI Crude (3) 11.0 10.7 10.8 11.4 12.1 11.7 12.2 11.7 12.1 12.2 9.8 8.5 8.9
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)
The comparison, shown in table (5), between natural gas prices and the WTI
crude reveal differential of $5.8/ 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 2018, the price of Japanese LNG imports increased by $0.3/million
BTU comparing with the previous month to reach $11.2 million BTU, whereas the
price of Korean LNG imports decreased by $0.2/million BTU comparing with the
previous month to reach $11/ million BTU, and the price of Chinese LNG imports
remained stable at the same previous month level of $8.5/ million BTU.
2.2. LNG Imports
Total Japanese, Korean and Chinese LNG imports from various sources, increased
by 12.2% or 1.991 million tons from the previous month level to reach 18.278
million tons.
Table (6) shows the prices and quantities of LNG imported by Japan, South
Korea, and China for the period 2016-2018.