In Asia, prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the spot market against the backdrop of competition from developed countries have increased to a level at which the energy resource cannot be afforded by some countries. This week, reflecting the cost of LNG supplies to Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, the JKM index rose to $60 per 1 million BTU, which is 12 times the average summer price until 2019, it was reported on August 21 TASS.
Noriaki Oba, founder of the Japanese Post-Oil Strategy Institute, expressed the opinion that even at a cost of $50 per 1 million BTU, “it makes no sense to use LNG.” He believes that the number of countries that will not be able to purchase energy resources will grow.
As follows from the data of the American Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, in July Pakistan LNG announced a tender for the purchase of ten consignments of liquefied natural gas, but due to the fact that developed countries are ready to offer a higher price, it did not receive any.
In addition, it is noted that Bangladesh also has problems. Earlier, at the end of July, Reuters reported that the country would not buy energy on the spot market in the coming months.
Oby clarified that there are many factors that can affect the cost of LNG. Including, according to him, the unclear prospects for exports from Australia, since earlier, as the Commission for the Protection of Competition and Consumer Rights, called on the country’s companies to redirect part of the LNG from the international to the domestic market.
It was reported yesterday that the Japanese companies Tokyo Gas and JERA signed contracts for the purchase of LNG with the new operator of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project. Terms of delivery and purchase prices will remain the same as before the changes in the project management structure. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of the country, there are currently no companies from Japan planning to refuse to extend the contract.
Leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund Stanislav Mitrakhovich told Izvestia on August 8 that Japan is in no hurry to withdraw from the Russian Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, because it provides almost 9% of this country’s gas consumption and is more important for it than ” Sakhalin-1″.
Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of Russia and a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, expressed the opinion on August 7 that the EU countries will most likely have to fight with Asian states for Russian liquefied natural gas in the coming months.
#Rising #prices #LNG #unaffordable #Asian #countries
