Page 9 - GLNG Week 17

GLNG ASIA GLNG
India’s LNG imports soared in March
PERFORMANCE
INDIA’S imports of LNG soared 20.4% year on year in March to 2.87bn cubic metres, while pro- duction shrank by 14.4% to 2.41 bcm.
Imports for fiscal 2019-2020 climbed by 17.2% on the year to 33.68 bcm, according to Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell data pub- lished on April 28. Production for the 12 months slid 5% to 31.18 bcm,
Gas production has reportedly suffered after the country entered lockdown on March 24, with industrial users and retailers understood to have reduced purchases.
Indian newswire PTI said earlier this month that a growing number of state-run Oil and Nat- ural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and GAIL (India)’s cli- ents had asked for supplies either to be reduced or suspended completely. Industry sources told the newswire that ONGC’s sales had dropped from 50mn cubic metres per day to 40 mcm since the start of the lockdown, while GAIL’s sales had plunged from 115-120 mcm per day to 76 mcm per day.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to review the country’s quarantine measures on May 3, after its original deadline was extended
from April 14. The business community has begun pressing New Delhi to ease restrictions, and the government has softened some of its measures. For example, the government has cleared the way for state authorities to begin overseeing interstate travel by those looking to return their primary residences.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has said move- ment between states will be regulated by local officials, who will need to conduct screening at both ends of the journey and enforce quarantines where necessary.
Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said on April 14 that the government’s decision to extend the lockdown had hurt demand and that the out- look for LNG demand was weak.
Wood Mackenzie’s Asia-Pacific vice-chair, Gavin Thompson, said: “India’s gas demand has been severely affected, primarily across the transport and industrial sectors. As a notoriously price-sensitive market, low oil prices are also a competitive threat to gas. High inventories are resulting in refiners further reducing margins for oil products to compete with gas, leading to downside risk on the LNG demand outlook.”™
Thailand provisionally supports LNG stockpiling idea
POLICY
THE Thai government has given its provisional support to the idea of storing imported LNG in Gulf of Thailand fields.
But while Thai Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong acknowledged that historically low prices made imports of the fuel more attrac- tive than some domestic production, he insisted that policymakers needed to discuss the matter further.
PTT president and CEO Chansin Treenucha- gron has called for cheap foreign gas supplies to be stockpiled. The netback from the Platts JKM dropped below -$1 per mmBtu (-$27.66 per 1,000 cubic metres) last week.
The Bangkok Post quoted Treenuchagron on April 28 as saying: “The record-low LNG prices may last to the end of this year, so we must import andstorecheapgasintheGulfofThailand.”
The International Gas Union (IGU) said in a report this week that LNG prices were not expected to recover before winter 2020. The result, the IGU said, would be to undermine looming final investment decisions (FIDs).
“Due to the low LNG prices in 2019, and into
2020 amid a global LNG supply surplus and uncertainties in the trade environment, some of the proposed projects are seeing slower pro- gress towards FID,” the report said. “With the additional effect of [coronavirus] COVID-19 on stockmarkets,manycompanies,includingthose in the energy industry, are struggling financially, further delaying progress of projects.”
Cheap imports
PTT and state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) have purchased
Spot LNG prices have become cheaper than gas produced in the Gulf of Thailand.
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