MARKET COMMENT Majors Forced to Adapt to Shifts in Global LNG Market

摘要

The global LNG industry is undergoing dramatic change, forcing the major international oil companies to adapt. LNG supplies used to be tied up in 20-year contracts, with prices linked to oil and cargoes delivered from a specific liquefaction plant to a specific buyer. It was a low-risk model that worked for decades, but those days are drawing to an end. The status quo is being disrupted by a surge in global LNG supply, weaker demand in mature markets and buyers' demands for shorter, more flexible contracts. Sellers have been scrambling to devise new strategies to sell the super-chilled gas, which has recently seen growth in spot trading, but has not quite achieved true commodity status yet. The surge in supply is already causing Asian spot LNG prices to diverge from oil-linked term LNG prices, a trend that is expected to continue over the next few years.