With climate concerns climbing up government agendas ahead of key UN talks in Paris in December, natural gas, as the cleanest fossil fuel, would seem an obvious beneficiary of the move to a more carbon-constrained world. Prices in the world's three main gas markets suggest otherwise. True, spot LNG prices in Asia are now at levels last seen in mid-January (p8). But that's hardly reason to cheer: At around $8 per million Btu, they are 25% down on assessments this time last year and make the highs of nearly $20/MMBtu hit in early 2014 seem a distant dream. Prices are similarly weak in Europe and the US. Most of the majors have still to report earnings, but a sense of the broader impact came from UK giant BP on Jul. 28, when it said its average realized gas prices were nearly 31% lower in the first year of 2015 than they were 12 months earlier.
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